Facebook and Instagram were hacked by a Dubai-based group. Let them learn. (Image via detikNews)

Facebook and Instagram hacked on Friday afternoon

On Friday afternoon, a hacking group called OurMine claimed that it had temporarily taken over Facebook’s social media accounts. The statement by OurMine was released through Twitter and Instagram accounts for Facebook and Messenger, saying that “even Facebook is hackable”.

Fortunately, now the hacked accounts had been restored. OurMine was also the mastermind behind the hijacking over a dozen accounts for teams in the U.S National Football League (NFL).

OurMine itself is based in Dubai. The group targets high-profile digital accounts. For example, OurMine was also behind the hacking of Twitter’s founder account, Jack Dorsey; Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai’ Netflix, and ESPN.

The group only has one goal in mind, to expose the cyber vulnerabilities and teach its victims to improve their safeguards. While saying that the social media platform established by Mark Zuckerberg is prone to hack, OurMine said that its security is better than Twitter.

The group also hacked Facebook and Messenger accounts on Instagram to post a photo of OurMine’s logo.

Thankfully, Facebook’s website is untouched.

On the other hand, Twitter confirmed that OurMine’s hacking was via a third-party and the hijacked accounts were locked down after the issue. Twitter also cooperated with Facebook to restore the accounts.

OurMine’s hack over Facebook followed the same pattern as the teams on the NFL. The accounts are accessible via Khoros, a marketing platform to manage social media communications. Therefore, Khoros has access to the login details such as usernames and passwords of its customers.

Khoros declined to comment on the matter.

Source: https://bbc.in/2OE7lp0