Researchers from iDefense Labs, a division of VeriSign, has tracked an effort to sell login data for 1.5 million Facebook accounts on several online criminal marketplaces, including Carder.su. According to Rick Howard, director, cyber intelligence, iDefense, a hacker, who used the screen name ‘kirllos’, was recently offering to sell bundles of 1,000 Facebook accounts with 10 or fewer friends for $25 and with more than 10 friends for $45.
Criminals steal login data for Facebook accounts, typically with ‘phishing’ techniques that trick users into disclosing their passwords or with malware that logs computer keystrokes. They then use the accounts to send spam, distribute malicious programmes and run identity and confidence fraud. Facebook accounts are attractive because of the higher level of trust on the site than exists in the broader internet, reports Economic Times.
