Hackers Threaten To Destroy Facebook!

Notorious hacker collective Anonymous on Tuesday threatened to “kill” Facebook on Nov. 5, according to a YouTube video spotlighted on official channels used by the group.

“Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed,” the group wrote in a transcript of its YouTube video. “If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook [sic] for the sake of your own privacy.”

Facebook did not immediately respond with an official comment about the threat.

Anonymous claims it is doing Facebook users a service because the company is “selling information to government agencies.” It also asserts that Facebook’s privacy controls are a joke and that users cannot actually delete their accounts.

“Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your ‘privacy’ settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you ‘delete’ your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time,” the group wrote. “Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more ‘private’ is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.”

Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates when Fawkes and others placed explosives under the British House of Lords in 1605. The Guy Fawkes mask and story was popularized in the ten-issue comic series V for Vendetta and the movie based upon it.

The @YourAnonNews Twitter account appeared to confirm the video was actually issued by Anonymous, with a tweet on Tuesday night stating: “Remember remember the fifth of November the FaceBook treason and plot…”

The threat to destroy Facebook comes only a day after the group successfully hacked and defaced the Syrian Ministry of Defense’s website. Anonymous has gained much exposure in the last year with attacks on PayPal, Visa, Amazon, Bank of America, and various world governments. The group was blamed for the massive attack on Sony’s PlayStation Network but it denied involvement.

Even though Anonymous has had success in hacking some major websites in the past, it’s questionable that it would be successful against Facebook. When you consider that the hacking group has given Facebook several months to prepare for an attack, it’s extremely unlikely Facebook would be brought down. But when you’re talking about a group of hackers with an aim to sow dischord, you can never be certain.

The roughly made YouTube video issued by Anonymous can be watched below:

DefCon Kid Hacker Uncovers Zero-Day Exploit

 A number of media sources have made light of DefCon's "Kids Village", but a 10-year old hacker discovered an entire class of vulnerabilities and presented her findings as well or better than most of the conference's attendees.

The hacker goes by the handle CyFi, and she co-founded "DefCon Kids Village" -- a series of presentations for 60-odd aspiring hackers aged 8-16 who attended the conference in Las Vegas. The theme for the first year of the Kids Village was responsible hacking...although admittedly, some of the "white hat" skills demonstrated included lock picking and various Google hacks.

CyFi's own presentation was called "Apps—A Traveler of Both Time and Space, And What I Learned About Zero-Days and Responsible Disclosure." In it, she demonstrated how she could manipulate the clock on her cell phone to fool apps into thinking that more time had passed -- but there are a few other steps that CyFi, in the spirit of "responsible disclosure", did not spell out for the listeners.

"I'll show a new class of vulnerabilities I call TimeTraveler," CyFi's summary read. "By controlling time, you can do many things, such as grow pumpkins instantly. This technique enables endless possibilities. I'll show you how...Thank you AT&T, DEFCON, EFF and Lookout!!!!! :)"

The pumpkins were part of a social farming game that can be found on iOS and Android devices. Their slow growth (and CyFi's impatience) was the catalyst for the hacker's coding experiments. CyFi discovered that the code and clock alterations enable any number of changes to occur instantly within the framework of the game -- thus, the "new class of vulnerabilities".

In the true spirit of DefCon, CyFi di not divulge her 'real' name. Nor did she mention the names of the games that she'd hacked (i.e., "responsible disclosure"). However, she did proudly admit to being a "a ten-year-old hacker, artist and athlete living in California" who "really likes coffee, but her mom doesn’t let her drink it."

By James Lee Phillips, who is a Senior Writer & Research Analyst for IBG.com. With offices in Dallas, Las Vegas, and New York, & London, IBG is quickly becoming the leading expert in Internet Marketing, Local Search, SEO, Website Development and Reputation Management.