A group of hackers with ties to the Belarusian government broke into the Facebook accounts of Ukrainian military officials and posted videos calling on the Ukrainian army to surrender. According to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, the posts appeared as if they were coming from the legitimate account owners. The group of hackers, known in the security industry as Ghostwriter, typically targets victims by compromising their email addresses and using them to gain access to social media accounts. “When it comes to persistent threat actors, we’ve seen a further spike in activity by Ghostwriter,” Ben Nimmo, Meta’s global threat intelligence lead for influence operations, said on a call with reporters. He added that since February, “they’ve attempted to hack into the Facebook accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military personnel.” Meta’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gliecher, said the videos posted on the accounts of Ukrainian military officials were not seen by users and were taken down by the platform before it could be shared with others. Meta also removed a network of 200 accounts operating from Russia that were falsely filing hundreds — and in some cases thousands — of reports against users, mainly in Ukraine and Russia, for various policy violations. The mass reporting was an attempt to silence critics and Ukrainians, Meta said.
Read more : Russian-backed hackers broke into Facebook accounts of Ukrainian military officials.
