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Russian Hacker Selling 1.5 Million Facebook Accounts

42 points by Concours 17y ago

warfangle 17y ago
Why are they suggesting using a browser 9 months out of date?
aditya 17y ago
Hmm... so this is why Facebook asked me to change my password due to a failed attempt from a "computer" ostensibly in the "United Kingdom" and I thought it was just a jealous ex-girlfriend... :-)
alrex021 17y ago
Quick, mass-suicide -> suicidemachine.org and let people make some real friends. :)
iamdave 17y ago
* It’s also advisable to ensure that your social networking passwords are all different and to generate difficult passwords that include numbers, capital letters and special characters, if at all possible.* I'm inclined to think that Mashable's target audience involves non-technies, individuals who would find that sort of password recommendation very insightful, but in the end, would never come up with a password that complex on their own. And if they are talking to techies, who (I would hope) put some thought into their passwords, thanks for the tip chief.
- frederickcook 17y ago
  If one can buy 1000 ID's for $25-$45, actual password strength is probably much less important than using different passwords for different sites. Why bother running a password library or brute force program when you can just purchase the ids/passwords for so cheap?
  - omarchowdhury 17y ago
    The point being made here is that you shouldn't use the same password for everything. It wouldn't be hard for the purchasers of these lists to determine if some of the users data is also valid on another websites (for example - Paypal).
- jolie 17y ago
  That's why I recommended a few password management tools in the next sentence. I assumed our readers would want something simple and effortless and well as secure.
hristov 17y ago
If he was a smart hacker he would have generated the accounts himself.
- robryan 17y ago
  Those accounts don't come with trusted real world connections. I'd imagine playing it right people buying these accounts would get really high conversion rates on offers they try and push through them, given that people are likely to trust friends with accounts that have been used properly before and aren't just accounts with 5000 random friends that don't actually know the person (there seems to be a market for those as well).
waxman 17y ago
And in related news, Facebook selling 400 million Facebook accounts

42 points by Concours 17y ago

Why are they suggesting using a browser 9 months out of date?

Hmm... so this is why Facebook asked me to change my password due to a failed attempt from a "computer" ostensibly in the "United Kingdom" and I thought it was just a jealous ex-girlfriend... :-)

alrex021 17y ago

Quick, mass-suicide -> suicidemachine.org and let people make some real friends. :)

iamdave 17y ago

* It’s also advisable to ensure that your social networking passwords are all different and to generate difficult passwords that include numbers, capital letters and special characters, if at all possible.* I'm inclined to think that Mashable's target audience involves non-technies, individuals who would find that sort of password recommendation very insightful, but in the end, would never come up with a password that complex on their own. And if they are talking to techies, who (I would hope) put some thought into their passwords, thanks for the tip chief.

frederickcook 17y ago
If one can buy 1000 ID's for $25-$45, actual password strength is probably much less important than using different passwords for different sites. Why bother running a password library or brute force program when you can just purchase the ids/passwords for so cheap?
- omarchowdhury 17y ago
  The point being made here is that you shouldn't use the same password for everything. It wouldn't be hard for the purchasers of these lists to determine if some of the users data is also valid on another websites (for example - Paypal).
jolie 17y ago
That's why I recommended a few password management tools in the next sentence. I assumed our readers would want something simple and effortless and well as secure.

hristov 17y ago

If he was a smart hacker he would have generated the accounts himself.

robryan 17y ago
Those accounts don't come with trusted real world connections. I'd imagine playing it right people buying these accounts would get really high conversion rates on offers they try and push through them, given that people are likely to trust friends with accounts that have been used properly before and aren't just accounts with 5000 random friends that don't actually know the person (there seems to be a market for those as well).

waxman 17y ago

And in related news, Facebook selling 400 million Facebook accounts