As the era of cell phone spy software and PC monitoring software kicks into fifth gear, some of the biggest boys in the cyber world are being forced to swallow bitter hacking pills.
And when it comes to the very baddest boys, Facebook – the new kid on the block not too far down the memory lane – towers above almost everyone else. So when Facebook was hacked in the dying hours of May – between 20:00 and 23:00 EST on 31st May to be precise – the alarm bells simply had to echo all over the web. And echo they did…
Anonymously Yours
By now the Facebook buffs – and by that we mean a significant chunk of Earth’s inhabitants – would be well aware of what happened on Thursday night, which forced the social media giant to shut up shop pretty much for three whole hours.
A stereotypically named hacking group, ‘Anonymous’ has confirmed that it was their hacking maneuver that ensured that the world’s largest social networking website went kaput for three hours, as over 900 million Facebook users were absolutely baffled by the shambolic episode.
A New Sound of Tango Down
It is ironic indeed that if a Thursday-like catastrophe – no Facebook for three hours is akin to any of the history’s greatest natural calamities – were to strike upon any one of the aforementioned 900 million people, there reflex action would be to upload a sulky status on Facebook.
Since that was not possible, the whiners then took to Twitter to unleash their emotions. Also among the hordes of “sufferers” sharing the agony on Twitter was none other than Anonymous! (Cue over dramatic orchestra). The group confirmed their hack attack on Facebook via Twitter with an exclamation mark tweet that reads:
Oh yeah… RIP Facebook a new sound of tango down bitches.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) June 1, 2012
A Bear-and-Bull Story
Another ironic chapter in this saga is the fact that the whole Anonymous debacle came to the fore on a day when Facebook’s stock did rather well – after a stuttering start to its journey in the market as most of us are well aware of.
Facebook’s stock closed a mammoth five percent higher on Thursday ending at $29.60. And all this despite bears – that were later on stampeded upon by investors riding wild bulls – having a party in the morning trading. Even so, despite the late bull surge Facebook shares are still 22 percent southwards considering the IPO price.
Zuckerberg Has a Rough Day
After bull parade Facebook’s market value touched the $60 billion mark, still no way near the value that should give Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg the peace of mind. And of course any inkling of peace that Zuckerberg would have had been clinging onto, would have been swept away thanks to Anonymous’ 3-hour nightmare.
And to add insult to a growing list of injuries, Zuckerberg was also cut from the Bloomberg Business News Wire list of world’s 40 richest people, whose Facebook holdings plummeted from $19.3 billion on the first trading day to $13.6 on Thursday – definitely not a day he’ll have fond memories of.
Anonymous’ Next Stop: Canadian Grand Prix
Okay so if the Canadian Press is anything to go by – and they occasionally are – Anonymous’ next target is the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, which is scheduled for next month. It is intriguing, to say the very least, how Anonymous would use its repertoire of malware, spyware, PC monitoring software, cell phone spy software to disrupt a Formula One race.
The word is that Anonymous is threatening to divulge the personal information of those that have bought and would buy the ticket to the Grand Prix. Yes, those nosy little sons of a gun indeed.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Facebook has confirmed that the temporary outages experienced by Facebook users on May 31 – 2012 was not the result of a DDoS attack. The attack was not performed by Anonymous as mentioned in a press release. The author should have done some thorough research before posting this article.
I don’t think the attack was done by Anonymous. I read somewhere that it was just a temporary server outage. That’s it. Correct me if I’m wrong.
haven’t expected this with facebook …
I find it difficult to believe that Anonymous was behind this attack and if they were I would have expected far more outcry from users and the stockholders.
However on to the stockholders which you mention in this article, it seems like Facebook’s stock is a real nosebleed and is not going to gain any ground until something rather impressive happens or changes with the company’s business model.
It is incredible that when I wrote my stock report on How to Invest in Facebook, there was much talk of them expanding into search and mobile. All of that was assuming too that the stock would not IPO at $33 a share, far too much at the time.
Scott invites you to read How to Use Barron’s Magazine to Find Investment Leads
I’m pretty sure it was temporary server outage too. But who knows now-a-days, it could be a server attack.
Justin invites you to read The Basics of Website Performance Testing
Nice man,
Happy to read such a nice conversation on facebook attacks. Some type of attacks are good for facebook.
Akshay invites you to read Facebook Proxy Websites 2013