Malware that can hack Facebook accounts infected over one million users(facebook hacking)

Malware that can hack Facebook accounts infected over one million users(facebook hacking)

by Malik korrich ~ mardi 14 juillet 2015

Over one million users were affected by malware that hacked into the Facebook accounts of these users. The malware was a part of two gaming applications and hence the spread reached over a million since these were relatively popular gaming applications.

These games are ‘Cowboy Adventure’ and ‘Jump Chess’. The malware is a Trojan named Android/Spy.Feabme.A and it collected the login ids and passwords of the users who installed it. 

These two applications were used to get the Facebook login credentials of the users and the malware could collect details of around a million accounts before it was detected.

The apps contained malware codes in a subtle way. It means that the gaming applications functioned normally and the users could actually enjoyed playing the game unaware of the fact that the applications contained malware.

The malware used a phishing mechanism to get the user details. It will open a fake Facebook screen asking users to enter their login details. The applications did not ask for account details at the time of installation and hence users would not suspect any malware activity. However, since it would open a face Facebook page, users would login in their details and would get an error that they are unable to login.

However, the details would get captured by the malware embedded in the application which would then be used to log into user accounts. The spread of malware was more than anything similar that has happened before. The applications could successfully get the approval from Google for getting published on Google Play Store.

Since the malware has been detected, the apps have been removed from the play store; however it was done only after affecting around a million Facebook accounts. Also, if someone tries to install these apps from some other store, Google issues a warning to them communicating about the malware in the application.