Facebook is investigating violent and pornographic images spammers have planted in its network.
Offensive content that has popped up in Facebook news feeds includes hardcore porn images, pictures of extreme violence, animal abuse and even a Photoshopped image of Justin Bieber in a sexual situation, according to security firm Sophos. Users tend to see the images posted on a friend’s account, visible to everyone but the friend in question.
“We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue,” Facebook rep Andrew Noyes told Mashable.
It isn’t clear how the spam is being transmitted or by whom, but some sources are pointing fingers at Anonymous. The loosely affiliated group of hacker activists threatened to attack Facebook earlier this month. Anonymous, however, hasn’t mentioned the attack on any of the social channels through which it usually takes credit for its actions.
No matter who is behind the flood of obscenity, it seems to have succeeded in damaging Facebook’s reputation. Gawker, for instance, points out a new Facebook group called, “I remember when Facebook WASN’T a porn site!”
“It’s precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site,” wrote Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley in a blog post. “Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again.”
Have you noticed this kind of spam on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.
Update: Facebook’s latest statement says the root of the problem is malicious javascript that some users were tricked into pasting to their browser URL bar:
“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.
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. We’ve built enforcement mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious Pages and accounts that attempt to exploit it. We have also been putting those affected through educational checkpoints so they know how to protect themselves. We’ve put in place backend measures to reduce the rate of these attacks and will continue to iterate on our defenses to find new ways to protect people.”
Offensive content that has popped up in Facebook news feeds includes hardcore porn images, pictures of extreme violence, animal abuse and even a Photoshopped image of Justin Bieber in a sexual situation, according to security firm Sophos. Users tend to see the images posted on a friend’s account, visible to everyone but the friend in question.
“We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue,” Facebook rep Andrew Noyes told Mashable.
It isn’t clear how the spam is being transmitted or by whom, but some sources are pointing fingers at Anonymous. The loosely affiliated group of hacker activists threatened to attack Facebook earlier this month. Anonymous, however, hasn’t mentioned the attack on any of the social channels through which it usually takes credit for its actions.
No matter who is behind the flood of obscenity, it seems to have succeeded in damaging Facebook’s reputation. Gawker, for instance, points out a new Facebook group called, “I remember when Facebook WASN’T a porn site!”
“It’s precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site,” wrote Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley in a blog post. “Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again.”
Have you noticed this kind of spam on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.
Update: Facebook’s latest statement says the root of the problem is malicious javascript that some users were tricked into pasting to their browser URL bar:
“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.
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. We’ve built enforcement mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious Pages and accounts that attempt to exploit it. We have also been putting those affected through educational checkpoints so they know how to protect themselves. We’ve put in place backend measures to reduce the rate of these attacks and will continue to iterate on our defenses to find new ways to protect people.”
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