Facebook announced Friday it has been the target of a series of cyber attacks by an unidentified group of hackers, while ensuring that no personal data of its users seemed to have been compromised.
After a Twitter announcement earlier this month, Facebook admitted that it has been, last month, the target of a “sophisticated zero-day” cyber attack, which did not, however, compromise the data of its users. The intrusion was made through the contaminated site of a developer, said Facebook on its blog. ” As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement and began a significant investigation that continues to this day,” said the social network. Hackers have used the vulnerability of Java software, manufactured by Oracle, which, alerted on the intrusion, attempted to counter the attack on February 1st, according to Facebook. The pirates apparently tried to target developers and technology companies of the website, trapping them with a fake code. But Facebook was not the only one attacked,” said the social network. “Others were attacked and infiltrated recently as well.”
Facebook’s announcement follows recent cyber attacks that have targeted other social networks or known websites. Twitter said this month it was attacked by hackers that might have stolen login data for 250,000 accounts. Hackers have also attacked sites of newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Facebook lists the address of its main building in Menlo Park, California as “1 Hacker Way.”
A recent series of attacks, according to U.S. intelligence, are all signs of the proliferation of computer attacks against the United States. A classified report by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), quoted Sunday by the Washington Post, says the country of origin of the attacks in the first place is China, and also cites Russia, Israel and France. According to the NIE document, companies related to energy, finance, aerospace, auto are the most frequently targeted by these attacks, and the damage is estimated at tens of billions of dollars.
The Obama administration is trying to find ways to deal with this situation. The U.S. government already lodged complaints with the World Trade Organization, expelled diplomatic staff, or limited the issue of temporary visas.
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