What’s new: A 26-year-old hacker, Al-Tahery Al-Mashriky, was sentenced to 20 months in prison in the UK after pleading guilty to hacking over 3,000 websites and stealing login details of millions of Facebook users. His activities included targeting government websites in Yemen, Israeli news outlets, and organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Al-Mashriky was linked to extremist groups and was found to have defaced websites to promote political messages.
Who’s affected
Organizations that were targeted include the Yemen Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Yemen Ministry of Security Media, Israeli Live News, and various faith-based websites in Canada and the U.S. Additionally, over 4 million Facebook users had their personal data compromised.
What to do
- Review security measures for web applications to prevent unauthorized access and defacement.
- Monitor for signs of compromised user credentials and implement multi-factor authentication where possible.
- Educate users about phishing and other tactics used to steal login information.
