Meta has published its quarterly cyber threat report, and indicates that it has dismantled the accounts of eight companies linked to cyber activities. spyware. The American giant is warning of a resurgence of malware, which is seeing its capabilities increased tenfold thanks to artificial intelligence.
Called Adversarial Threat Report, this report has been published by the company since 2017. It “ provides in-depth analysis of our work detecting and combating security threats on our platform “, she says. The last three months of 2023 were particularly lively in this area. Meta denounces the activity on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook of several companies deploying spyware, targeting the most popular social networks in the world.
Malicious activities on most social networks
The affected companies are located in Spain, Italy and the United Arab Emirates, and target iOS, Android and Windows devices. “ Their various malware allowed to collect and access device information, location, photos and media, contacts, calendar, emails, SMS, social media and messaging apps, and enabled microphone, camera and screenshot features », explains Meta.
In addition to deploying spyware, they also engage in scraping, a technique consisting of recovering publicly accessible data from websites, and phishing. They have operated on many platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X.com (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Skype, GitHub, Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Quora, Tumblr, VK, Flickr, TikTok, Snapchat, Gettr, Viber, Twitch and Telegram.
For example, a network of fictional characters tricked users into providing their phone numbers and email addresses, as well as clicking on fake links. Many of these firms have also hired groups to develop and test spyware. Meta indicates that it has dismantled all accounts linked to these companies on its various platforms.
Act on an industrial scale
The release of the report comes as a coalition of governments and tech companies, including Meta, signed an agreement aimed at curbing the misuse of commercial spyware. Precisely, the social media giant explains that an approach on an industrial scale makes it possible to mitigate the threat of these malicious actors, because it “ forces them to spend more resources to hide and spread their activities on many online services “.
To best protect yourself against growing cyber risks, it is above all advisable to equip yourself with an antivirus as well as an antispyware.
Sources: Meta, The Hackers News
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