Tech Brief: Hackers Make Available Private Messages of 81,000 Facebook Users for Sale

Facebook can't seem to catch a break. Barely a month after a security vulnerability exposed 30 million users' personal information, hackers have made away with 81,000 users' private messages and put them up for sale, according to an investigation published by BBC today. "The perpetrators told the BBC Russian Service that they had details from a total of 120 million accounts, which they were attempting to sell, although there are reasons to be sceptical about that figure," said the report, adding that "many of the users whose details have been compromised are based in Ukraine and Russia." What's more, the hackers even attempted to sell access to the information for a paltry 10 cents per account.

While it appears that the message details were obtained after users downloaded a malicious browser extension (now no longer available) that then scraped the information from their accounts, it comes at a time when the social network has been beset by a string of high-profile privacy scandals since the start of the year, even as it continues to invite criticism for its inability to rid the platform of fake news, spam and propaganda. Even Facebook's ad review process hasn't escaped scrutiny in recent days: On Tuesday, VICE's William Turton posed as 100 senators in the "Paid for by" field, only to have all his ads approved, indicating that "just about anyone can buy an ad identified as 'Paid for by' by a major U.S. politician." Quickly it was followed by Business Insider's Shona Ghosh, who found that Facebook even approved an ad "Paid for by" Cambridge Analytica.