Hackers dramatize Facebook's flaws

An anonymous group of hackers decided to prove that Facebook has a major security weakness on its site. The group calling itself "Control Your Info" took over hundreds of Facebook groups. Posted on each groups' wall was a message that it had been "highjacked" and it reminded members to be careful about controlling personal information on social networking sites.

The group took control of more than 200 sites to prove its point, but Facebook downplayed the incident and said no hacking or confidential information was involved, according to an article from Computerworld.com.

The group had another message. "This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook. If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image," it said on the Facebook sites. "For example we could rename your group and call it something very inappropriate and nasty, like 'I support pedophile's rights,'" the message went on to say. The group then assured members that Control Your Info didn't do that.

The message also promised to restore each hijacked group's name by the "end of next week" and promised not to "mess anything up."

However, while this group did not appear to be damaging anyone's Facebook page, it is a dramatic example of how social media needs to be carefully monitored so the next time a hacker decides to be more than just mischievous, it can be deterred.

For more on the Facebook antics:
- see this Computerworld.com article

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