Lately, phishing attacks have been on the rise and have vastly affected Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users. In an attempt to stop ongoing phishing attacks, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, filed a federal lawsuit in California court.
Meta has stated that the attackers were trying to steal the login credentials of various users of its multiple platforms by creating fake login pages that looked like Meta’s social media platforms to obtain Meta’s users’ login credentials. The goal was to deceive the users into entering their credentials, like usernames and passwords.
For those unaware, Phishing attacks are the practice of sending fraudulent communications that appear to come from a trustworthy source. It is usually done through email. The goal is to steal sensitive data like credit card and login information or install malware on the victim’s machine.
Jessica Romero, Meta’s director of platform and litigation, said that “Reports of phishing attacks have been on the rise across the industry, and we are taking this action to uncover the identities of the people behind the attack and stop their harmful conduct.”
Meta made a blog post stating that the phishing scam included more than 39,000 fake websites and masked their identity by using a relay service that redirected the internet traffic to their phishing pages while simultaneously concealing their actual location and identities. The relay service also masked the online hosting providers of the perpetrators.
According to the social media giant, phishing attacks have increased since March 2021, and Meta has suspended thousands of URLs to such phishing sites. Although the culprits are yet to be identified, the lawsuit is another step in its actions to protect people’s safety and privacy. The filed lawsuit by Meta shows the company’s position against those trying to abuse its platforms.
In the blog post, meta reassured that they would continue to fight the phishing attacks that try to deceive its users and share the phishing sites with other platforms so that they can block the attackers as well.
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