The Downside of Friends: Facebook’s Hacking Problem

You get a quick message from a friend on Facebook, click on the link and absentmindedly log in to a website pretending to be Facebook. This is what happened last week, when scammers unleashed a new attack on Facebook, collecting users’ log-in information and passwords and pilfering victims’ “friends” lists to target the next dopes. Listen up, people: Although Facebook has a reputation for Internet security — it identified the scam within hours, and the ripple effects only lasted for a couple days — at 200 million members and counting, the size and popularity of the social-networking site has made it the object of increasing attention from hackers and spammers

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