A Russian hacker who says he is living in New Zealand, going by the name of Kirllos has claimed on various hacker forums that he has managed to steal the account information for 1.5 million Facebook users and he’s offering those accounts at very low pricing.
Kirllos is offering the user names and passwords of 1.5 million Facebook users for between $35 and $62.70 per 1000 accounts sold on an underground hacker forum. The New York Times reported that the login details of as many as 700,000 Facebook had already been sold.
Little is known about Kirllos, although his ICQ account says he is a 24-year-old who was born in Russia and speaks English, French and Russian.
While the accounts themselves do not contain enough personal information to commit outright identity theft, some social engineering could produce enough to possibly compromise more sensitive online services the account holder may use. Another avenue is the spreading of malware through the compromised user’s friend network.
The incident underscores the growing security concern around Facebook, which has more than 400 million members worldwide. This particular case shows that cybercriminals are beginning to look beyond their own geographies to international platforms such as Facebook.
Here is a news report exposing some of the secrity risks with facebook:
Social networking sites have become more popular recently with these types of scams! Thanks for the information!