Facebook Security Alert System Tips Off US Officials About Iranian Hackers

Facebook has an interesting security tool it set up to alert users of state sponsored hijack of social media accounts. In a recent New York Times (NYT) article , the United States department was notified of such activities by individuals largely believed to be Iranians. Since an accord by western powers to cut down Iran’s abilities to make a nuclear weapon, Iran has stepped up its hacking game according to the NYT sources. Just weeks into the new alert system, State Department officials began to see a troubling new message pop up on their Facebook accounts:

“We believe your Facebook account and your other online accounts may be the target of attacks by state-sponsored actors,” the message read. The Facebook system comes as polls show that users are not happy with governments’ decisions to have a backdoor access to user profiles allegedly for security reasons. Since the Snowden leaks, many internet based companies like Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Apple have all taken steps to make it harder to the American National Security Agency (NSA) and its counterparts across the world to access your accounts.

At a Wall Street Journal conference last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple had taken steps to make it difficult for any organisation to break decrypt encrypted data on the newer iPhones in a move that has angered anti-terrorism agencies.

Earlier in the year, hackers from Russia and China reportedly hacked President Obama’s emails and indeed other white House staffers. China has repeatedly said it has been a target of cyber breaches and has suspected America of being behind some of them. Both the US and Israel have useed cyber weapons to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program.