Hackers have pledged to “kill” Facebook by November 5 2011, less than 70 days from now.
A well known group of computer experts called Anonymous has recently hinted it will take Facebook off the net.
The attack has been code named OpFacebook and I have recently received the video tweet from the official website.
Anonymous claimed the social network based in Palo Alto California, Facebook, is providing information to government agencies so that they can spy on people. Here is a transcript of their publicised letter.
“Attention citizen of the world, we wish to get your attention hoping you heed the warnings as follows, your medium of communication you also dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktvist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information, then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy.
Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world, some of these so called white hat infomation security firms are working for authoritarian governments such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook is a property of facebook even after you delete it they still can recover it. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more private is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you more than your family. One day you will look back and thank us, the rulers of the internet . . . ”
It also said Facebook keeps saying it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives user the illusion of choice and hides the details away from them, for their own good.
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On twitter they said “Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history, November 5 2011, #opFacebook engaged! In my previous article entitled,“Facebook doing more harm than good”, I had hinted out most of these privacy issues, but it really looks like the rage has now upped to higher levels.
The hacker group Anonymous cannot be taken for granted, their statement cannot be understated, for the record they are reported to have once taken down the Nato website, Bank of America and Sony International.
All these organisations have the best expertise, but after being attacked, they all went down on their knees and Anonymous claimed responsibility.
Recently Anonymous has taken down Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and caused chaos.
In response to a decision by Bart management to interrupt cellphone service in four underground stations in downtown San Francisco for a couple of hours on August 11, Anonymous hacked into a third-party Bart website and released the personal information of thousands of Bart riders, all of whom were innocent of Bart’s actions.
The organisation then proceeded to hack Bart police officer`s association website and released the personal information of its users. This has been highly labelled unethical as members of the public had no reason to be implicated.
Facebook engineers are also not taking the threat lightly, since Thursday they have started revamping their security settings.
Whether it’s coincidental or reactionary, the point is they are finally heeding the call to take personal security seriously.
Facebook security holes were publicly posted online for download and millions of users to date have copies of these weaknesses which are still to be fixed.
Facebook has been used to facilitate abductions, stalking, impersonation and data theft. In a move quell the outrage Facebook has been improving its security settings and Facebook has made privacy and sharing options more explicit, rather than the old several clicks away, constant updates on sharing controls and offering users more control over photo tagging and choosing exactly what appears on personal profiles.
Users can now receive a notification before their photo is tagged and can chose to approve or deny it. It is also reported that many security changes are in the pipeline.
Whether or not these changes are going to impress the hacktvist is another issue we will just need to wait and see but as new information comes up we will keep the populace updated.
Prior to this threat, facebook had been reported by Weekly World News (WWN) that the Facebook’s brainchild Mark Zuckerberg had announced that he is going to shut down his Facebook by 2012.
Zuckerberg said Facebook was giving him too much stress and he wanted to return to his normal life.
WWN reports that “Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a Press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”
“After March 15 2012 the whole website shuts down,” said Avrat Humarthi vice-president of Technical Affairs at Facebook.
So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the Internet. You won’t be able to get them back after Facebook goes out of business.” WWN claimed that Zuckerberg said:
“I personally don’t think it’s a big deal,” in a private phone interview. “And to be honest, I think it’s for the better. Without Facebook, people will have to go outside and make real friends. That’s always a good thing.”
The story also followed up with a petition entitled save Facebook, and it raked in millions of signatures and comments of people who are both affected and “infected” by Facebook.
Most of these people were begging Zuckerberg to change his mind.
