The accounts focused on collecting data on Myanmar, India, Taiwan, the United States, and the Chinese people, including military personnel, democracy activists, government employees, politicians, and journalists.
Updated – Fri 16 Dec 22 09:46 PM
New Delhi: Social media giant Meta has shut down more than 40 accounts run by Indian firm CyberRoot Risk Advisory for alleged involvement in a hacker-for-hire service, the web giant said in a report.
Meta also shut down a network of about 900 fake accounts on Instagram and Facebook run by an unknown entity in China.
The accounts focused on collecting data on Myanmar, India, Taiwan, the United States and the Chinese people, including military personnel, democracy activists, government employees, politicians and journalists, according to the firm’s Threats for Employment Surveillance report published on Dec. 15 .
“We removed a network of more than 40 accounts on Facebook and Instagram run by an Indian company called CyberRoot Risk Advisory Private. The group’s activity was not shared directly on our app malware, but primarily manifests itself in social engineering and phishing, often designed to trick people into giving up their credentials for various online accounts on the Internet,” the report said.
According to Meta, CyberRoot used fake accounts to create fictitious personas in order to gain the trust and appear more believable of their target audience around the world, posing as journalists, business executives, and media personalities.
In some cases, CyberRoot also created accounts very similar to those linked to their targets, such as their friends and family, with slightly changed usernames, possibly to trick people into participating, the report said.
Meta said it found that CyberRoot was targeting people in various industries around the world, including cosmetic surgery and law firms in Australia, real estate and investment firms in Russia, private equity firms and pharmaceutical companies in the United States, environmental and Anti-corruption activists, gambling entities in the UK and mining companies in New Zealand.
“They targeted business executives, lawyers, doctors, activists, journalists and clergy in countries including Kazakhstan, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Iceland,” the report said.
Meta said it will continue to investigate and take action against spyware vendors around the world, including China, Russia, Israel, the United States and India, who are targeting users in approximately 200 countries and territories.
In its research, the social media company found that the global employment surveillance industry continues to grow, indiscriminately targeting people — including journalists, activists, litigants and political opponents — to gather intelligence, manipulate and disrupt their online presence. devices and accounts.
