Facebook users on Tuesday were assaulted by a wave of pornographic and violent images, pushed into their accounts as content supposedly liked or recommended by their friends. Facebook is investigating reports that a massive wave of pornographic and violent images that has flooded users' News Feeds in the past 24 hours.
The content, which includes explicit hardcore porn images, photoshopped photos of celebrities such as Justin Bieber in sexual situations, pictures of extreme violence and even a photograph of an abused dog, have been distributed via the site.
Spokesman Frederic Wolens said Facebook's security team had been working to identify the cause of the spam and that, by Tuesday afternoon, "we have eliminated most of the spam caused by this attack." Hackers also may have compromised the accounts of users with weak passwords or tricked people into installing a malicious code.
Needless to say, those affected are upset—with many taking to Twitter to complain about “seeing a dead dog on my Facebook newsfeed” to quote one user, who pretty much sums up what everyone else is most horrified about. Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again. Users hate to be tricked. Facebook would never trick them. Now these devious, mindless porn-peddlers have upset the mood of baby pictures, ego-expression, and frantic date-seeking.
The bad guys in that case tapped into Facebook's systems to push spam advertisements virally to the victims' friends and friends of friends. "Facebook, I can handle old person porn but please no more beaten, bloody animals ... NOT COOL," complained one.
"Seeing a dead dog on my Facebook newsfeed... Officially deactivating it," said another.
Facebook's Wolens said that users were tricked into pasting malicious script into their browser URL bars, causing them to unknowingly share the offensive content. He said no data or account information was compromised during the attack.
Spokesman Frederic Wolens said Facebook's security team had been working to identify the cause of the spam and that, by Tuesday afternoon, "we have eliminated most of the spam caused by this attack." Hackers also may have compromised the accounts of users with weak passwords or tricked people into installing a malicious code.
Needless to say, those affected are upset—with many taking to Twitter to complain about “seeing a dead dog on my Facebook newsfeed” to quote one user, who pretty much sums up what everyone else is most horrified about. Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again. Users hate to be tricked. Facebook would never trick them. Now these devious, mindless porn-peddlers have upset the mood of baby pictures, ego-expression, and frantic date-seeking.
The bad guys in that case tapped into Facebook's systems to push spam advertisements virally to the victims' friends and friends of friends. "Facebook, I can handle old person porn but please no more beaten, bloody animals ... NOT COOL," complained one.
"Seeing a dead dog on my Facebook newsfeed... Officially deactivating it," said another.
Facebook's Wolens said that users were tricked into pasting malicious script into their browser URL bars, causing them to unknowingly share the offensive content. He said no data or account information was compromised during the attack.
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