One million Facebook users have downloaded or used innocent-looking mobile apps designed to steal their social network passwords, Meta warned on Friday. “We’ll let a million people know that they can be exposed to these apps, it doesn’t mean they’re hacked.Davit Agranovich, director of Meta’s cyber security teams, said at the press conference.
Since the beginning of the year, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has revealed more than 400 applications.malicious“, available on iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) smartphones. “These apps were available on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store and were listed as photo editing tools, games, VPN and other services.“Meta elaborates in the press release. Once downloaded and installed on the phone, these explosive apps asked users to enter their Facebook credentials to access certain features. “They are just trying to trick people into giving up their confidential information so hackers can access their accounts.– summed up Davit Agranovich.
He believes that the developers of these apps were probably looking to recover passwords other than just Facebook profiles. “Targeting seemed pretty undifferentiated“, he noted. It looked like a goalto get as many identifiers as possible“. Meta said it shared its findings with Apple and Google. Apple did not respond to AFP’s request, but Google said it had already removed most of the apps reported by Meta from its Play Store. “None of the apps mentioned in the report are available on Google Play yetA Google representative wrote to AFP.
More than 40% of the reported apps were used to edit images. Others consisted of simple tools, like turning her phone into a flashlight. Davit Agranovich advised users to be careful when the service asks for credentials or makes promises without a good reason.”too good to be true“.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.