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Social Media Control. Is Facebook being violated after all?
It is a fact that the internet and online platforms (social media) have dominated our everyday life and are now the main tool for communication and socialization of citizens. The issue that is currently plaguing most users is whether it is possible to hack into social media, either in order to attempt it themselves, as “perpetrators”, or to find out whether they are victims of such an “attack”. Every day there are ongoing discussions by would-be and non-hackers about the difficulty of hacking social media. The methods that have been used from time to time vary. Among them are massive brute force attacks with software such as hydra, medusa etc. In order to protect its users, Facebook has therefore created tiered security bundles which ‘protect’ the account in question from such attacks.
The brute force programs try multiple passwords every second, up to hundreds of passwords, until they finally find the right one. Most of us have had our passwords incorrectly entered more than 3-4 times. When we finally log into the account, we notice that we have received a message stating that someone has tried to log into our profile. And in case where passwords are tried for more than say 40-50 times, which is rarely done manually, then there is a time delay until the next attempt to enter the account, just like with the lock code on the mobile phone.
The most common and easiest way in which Facebook is compromised is through physical contact with the victim’s computer. Even if our victim has deleted history and cookies from his computer, it is still possible to recover these codes.
In more complex cases where the attacker does not have physical contact with the victim’s computer, the probability of success reaches up to 80%. To achieve this goal, social engineering systems and methods are used which for obvious reasons will not be mentioned in this text.
Despite the illegal nature of these techniques, they have often been used by parents towards their young children, thus preventing acts such as drug use, sexual blackmail and the voluntary disappearance of minors. In some cases, harassment by paedophiles has been prevented. Recently, parents were made aware of their minor child’s electronic contact with a man 30 years older than him, through which he asked for sexual photos and physical contact.
In all cases the law is strict and social media violations are prosecuted.
Nikos Pelekasis and Associates, a private investigation agency in Athens, has been operating successfully since 1980 until today. Our staff consists of highly trained professionals who remain constantly up-to-date on both new technological developments and the latest counter-monitoring practices. Through regular seminars and trainings both in Greece and abroad, we constantly strive to improve the level and efficiency of our services.
