Security news1 June 2009
Tory MP hacked on Facebook Michael Fabricant's account used to spam 1500 friends
IT security and control firm Sophos is reminding computer users to be on their guard against phishing attacks following news that the Facebook account of Conservative MP for Lichfield, Michael Fabricant, has been hacked.
According to reports, the MP fell foul of a phishing campaign that stole his username and password, and hackers then sent messages to Fabricant's 1,500 friends saying "Look at this!" and pointing recipients to a malicious webpage. Facebook has now suspended the politician's page.
Fabricant reported on his blog that he was "devastated.. This has never happened to me before and I can only apologise. If any of my Facebook Friends get a message from me called 'Look at this' - Don't! I did when I received a similar message and look what happened to me. Outlawed from cyberspace and unable to communicate now with my cyber friends."
"This Tory MP's tangle with cybercriminals is no laughing matter, and for many victims of similar scams, this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "A third of computer users admit to using the same password for every website they access, and if Fabricant is one of these, he should now make it a priority to change his login details before the hackers have a chance to get to his other internet accounts. It would do no harm for any computer user to take time to better acquaint themselves with safe computing practices, to better defend their activities online."
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About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.
