Apple and Meta are said to have handed over some of their data to hackers posing as US law enforcement agencies without even knowing it.
According to Bloomberginformation that Apple and Meta – the parent company of Facebook – sent the hacker IP address, phone number and home address. To gain the trust of these two companies, hackers forged orders from US law enforcement agencies, requesting urgent data. The incident happened in mid-2021 but has only been revealed until now.
Apple and Facebook are two of the latest companies targeted by hackers. Photo: TugaTech
According to The Verge, law enforcement agencies in the US often request data from social platforms if the matter is related to criminal investigations, allowing them to obtain information about the owner of a particular online account . Usually, these requests require a written order from the court, or a signed search warrant from a judge. But if labeled “urgent” as in a life-threatening situation, the above procedure is skipped.
Security company Krebs on Security said that requests to send data urgently are increasingly common. In one attack, the hacker first managed to break into the police department’s mail system, then faked an emergency request, describing the potential dangers if the data was not sent immediately. Most companies in this case may have to comply with the requirements. In some cases, hackers don’t even need to break into the police department’s systems, if that information is already available on forums that specialize in selling data on the dark web.
According to the analysis of some security experts, the group of hackers behind are mainly teenagers living in the UK and US. Among them, Lapsus$ – the group that carried out a series of attacks against well-known companies – is under suspicion.
Andy Stone, Meta’s director of communications and policy, said the company has blocked the compromised accounts and is working with law enforcement “to respond to incidents involving requests that were compromised.” suspected fraud”. Meanwhile, Apple did not confirm the issue but turned to its law enforcement guidelines.
Besides Apple and Meta, a number of other businesses also targeted by hackers include Snap (Snapchat’s parent company) and Discord. However, these companies do not comply with requests to submit data.
“This tactic poses a significant threat in the tech industry,” commented Peter Day, Discord’s communications team manager.
Bao Lam
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