Facebook unveils warning system to let users know when ‘government-sponsored’ hackers target them

[Turborama]

Source: News Corp (Australia)

SOCIAL media giant Facebook will now alert users whenever they come under surveillance from government-sponsored links.

In a blog post, chief security officer at Facebook, Alex Stamos said the company would flag up “targeted attacks”.

“Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state,” Stamos said.

“To protect the integrity of our methods and processes, we often won’t be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers.

He explains that the warning is necessary because government-sponsored attacks “tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others.”

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/facebook-unveils-warning-system-to-let-users-know-when-government-sponsored-hackers-target-them/story-fnjwnhzf-1227575244733

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Example of the warning:

[WheelWalker]

1. They want my phone number.... %securitycode %warningsystem

[Sunlei]

16. can't even give a fake number. they use the number to verify a logon password.

If you say, "I don't have texts on this phone" They will call the phone number.

Facebook is now an arm of major Governments to track their people.

[TygrBright]

2. Damn. There went another Irony Meter... n/t

[irisblue]

3. how bout when your ex does?

[ErikJ]

4. Always use an alias name on social media. nt

[valerief]

15. And alias birthday and alias just about everything else. nt

[klook]

5. How about an alert when Facebook shares your info with their corporate customers?

Oh yeah, what am I thinking? That's the cornerstone of their business model.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

6. Am I supposed to think the NSA coudn't get access to everything I post on FB,

and FB gives a shit enough to prevent it, even if they could?

[progree]

7. That's nice. But I wish they would put some resources into fixing the basics

Like about 5 days ago I started getting notifications from all my friends (fortunately not that many) every time they shared something or uploaded a picture or whatever. I had never gotten these before. I had not changed any settings, I checked all my settings anyway, I went to the help forums and found other users with the same problem and no real solutions.

Fortunately in my case these were notifications via the notification icon (the globe on the dark blue navigation bar). Some people are getting these notifications by emails -- several hundreds of emails a day!

Then there's those black icons on the dark dark blue navigation bar at the top of the page - the ones for Friends, Messages, Notifications, Privacy, and the pulldown menu. I can barely make them out no matter how close I put my eyeballs to my 24" monitor. Lots of people complaining about that for months. But when you are Fuckerberg, why care?

[LittleGirl]

8. that started for me a few months ago

and I was getting spammed by facebook notifications that were ridiculous! So I had to shut down all of my notifications because you can't selectively shut down notifications like you could before. This means that when someone messages you, you have to check facebook and not get an email notification instead. That really bites as you may not be able to be logged into facebook when you are waiting for a reply to a message.

I have a love hate relationship with facebook. I live abroad and it is one way to keep in touch with family and yet, I can't stand that facebook has that much power over our private information. I tried to remove my birth 'year' of my facebook and it wouldn't let me. So I changed my birth year to 1905 and it allowed that!

[progree]

9. Hmm, I don't see any place to turn off ALL notifications

Everything on my "Notifications Settings" page
https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=notifications§ion=on_facebook

is OFF

except

"Activity that involves you
You'll always get notifications about activity that involves you, like when someone tags you in a photo or comments on your post."

which is ON and I can't turn it off (and I want those notifications anyway).

[LittleGirl]

10. go to privacy settings

and notification settings.
I selected the "Only notifications about your account, security and privacy" option and have everything else shut off. There is no setting to get an email for messages and/or replies. ugh.

I do this on my laptop, not on my phone. I rarely use a phone for facebook.

[progree]

12. Thanks - but I don't see anything in privacy settings that seem relevant to all these

notifications.

In the email section of notifications, I also have only "Only notifications about your account, security and privacy" option and have everything else shut off.

But I'm not getting any problematical email notifications, thankfully, just those listed above.

In the "On Facebook" section of Notification Settings, I've got everything turned off that I can. (Well, Tags is set to Anyone, but the other only two choices are Friends and Friends of Friends, and anyway that's not a problem I'm having)

I'm using a desktop computer (Windows 7)

Thanks again.

[LittleGirl]

13. You're welcome! eom

[Sunlei]

17. The only solution is to unfriend everyone. put a folder in your favorites with

the url of all your facebook friends and use that to read their facebook pages.

[JDPriestly]

11. Shortly after I joined Facebook, Facebook sent me an e-mail advising me that my account

had been accessed from Herndon, Virginia.

The two largest employers in Herndon, Virginia are Clear Wireless and Booz, Allen, Hamilton.

More about Herndon, VA.

Herndon is part of the Dulles Technology Corridor, which Fortune magazine named the "Netplex" because of the presence of the headquarters of such companies as AOL, XO Communications, Verizon Business (formerly MCI, formerly WorldCom, originally UUNET), and Network Solutions, which began as the INTERNIC – the registry where every domain name was once administered.

Some of those companies are within Herndon. Others have Herndon mailing addresses, but are located in unincorporated Fairfax or Loudoun counties, e.g., south of the Dulles Toll Road. These include Deltek and K12.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herndon,_Virginia

I don't knowingly use any of the companies like AOL or Verizon, etc.

I have a Facebook account and I check likes and write short comments and use it mostly for contact with family and friends, but I don't post anything there myself. I only post here.

Very strange.

People on DU have suggested that maybe my internet is somehow routed through Herndon, but I don't know why that would be since I live in California.

Very strange.

But Facebook did notify me of someone accessing my account who should not have accessed it. Maybe I have a friend in Herndon that I don't know about?

Any ideas, anyone?

[LittleGirl]

14. probably not a friend but hacker

The reason they chose Herndon is that they are going by the IP address of the person trying to access your account. When you get that notification, you need to log out of facebook and change the password immediately. Use upper and lower case letters and numbers in your password. Make sure you never have the same password for facebook, email, bank or DU. Always always use separate passwords especially for those four.

[Sunlei]

18. My suggestion is to not link your facebook account to any other accounts at all.

No Facebook friends or 'likes'. Or google, never login to google either. I'll probably get on some Gov. list-flag now for the suggestion

Probably to late for most people who have used the internet forever.