Facebook founder hacked, site tightens security (Roundup)

Jan 26, 2011, 20:32 GMT

San Francisco - Facebook announced a string of new security measures Wednesday, just a day after the fan page of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was hacked by a mystery invader.

The new controls allow users to access the site with one time passwords received over mobile phones that are preregistered to their accounts. The updated measures also allow users to see what computers their accounts are logged in from and if necessary remotely log them off.

Facebook will also broadly introduce a tool called social authentication to verify users by requiring them to identify photos of friends. Also new will be the ability to use secure wireless connection to access Facebook over public internet networks.

Facebook said that the measures were introduced to mark Data Privacy Day, which falls on Friday, rather than in response to the embarrassing security glitch that allowed a mystery hacker to take control of Zuckerberg's page.

The hacker posted a message decrying the company's attempts to cash in on its hugely successful site. Facebook declined to comment on the embarrassing security snafu, but did take down the compromised page.

'Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way?' said the message, which was posted just days after Facebook confirmed that it had raised 1.5 billion dollars from global investors at a valuation of around 50 billion dollars.

'Why not transform Facebook into a 'social business' the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it?' the message continued, referring to the founder of the Grameen Bank which has transformed millions of lives by extending microloans to poor people.

Zuckerberg's fan page has over 3 million followers and is probably managed by media assistants to the social networking magnate, according to cyber-security experts. The hackers may have stolen control of the page by guessing the password, sniffing it out over unsecured wireless networks, tricking Zuckerberg or the account manager into revealing it, or even surreptitiously gaining control of their computer.

'We don't know how the hack was perpetrated,' said Paul Ducklin, head of technology at internet security firm Sophos. 'Whatever happened in this case, it raises one more tough question: do you still trust Facebook with your online persona?'

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