Facebook: currently under spam attack!
Have you been seeing some unusual new images in your Facebook news feed lately? Have your friends been sharing images of porn, violence, and animal abuse that are decidedly against Facebook’s Terms of Service? Well, odds are they’ve fallen victim to the latest attack against Facebook. Facebook is under a spam attack, and users are spreading the sickness. Unknowingly, of course.
“Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us, and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms. Recently, we experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browser vulnerability. Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible,” said a Facebook statement on the matter. “During this spam attack users were tricked into pasting and executing malicious JavaScript in their browser URL bar causing them to unknowingly share this offensive content. Our engineers have been working diligently on this self-XSS vulnerability in the browser.”
It sounds like it’s similar to the Javascript exploit that hit Twitter earlier this year, and the kind of images that hackers put onto Sesame Street’s YouTube page. Here’s hoping Facebook can get its house in order, as I’d imagine Facebook users are really put out by the accidental exposure to some of the most terrible images online.
Tags: Facebook, Facebook spam attack, Facebook Javascript attack, Javascript, Facebook spam, Facebook users spammed with violence and porn, social networks, Facebook attacked by spam, Facebook victim of coordinated spam attack, self-XSS vulnerability, Facebook users tricked into spreading spam, Facebook attack
