Hackers target Aussie companies with racy content dumped on Facebook pages
In a disturbing attack, scammers have hacked into the Facebook pages of multiple Australian businesses and uploaded pornographic content.
Hackers have started taking racy steps to target Australian businesses, dumping pornographic content on their Facebook pages in a disturbing attack.
Brisbane woman Anita Plath shared her story of being hacked in the middle of the night just over a month ago, waking up to a flurry of emails from Facebook.
“It was all done at 2.50am in the morning, so by the time I woke up and saw it, it was too late,” Ms Plath told Nine News.
The scammer reset Ms Plath’s password, added a new email address and changed her security settings before wreaking havoc on Dibble Locksmiths and Australian Security Brokers (ASB) Facebook business pages.
The cyber robber changed the profile picture on the ASB page – which sells security alarms – to show a young Asian woman midriff bare.
“They then attacked the Dibble Locksmiths page and put an even worse photo on that one,” Ms Plath said.
This included a profile picture – which is still up – of a woman in lace underwear and a singlet.
In a bizarre turn of events, the cyber crooks then started posting pornographic footage filmed on webcams on the businesses public pages.
Ms Path said the videos generated “thousands and thousands of likes” and the office phones – which are linked to the pages – began ringing off the hook.
“We‘ve got caller ID on the phones here at work, and they were all overseas calls. But when we answered there was no one there.” she said.
Ms Plath reportedly flagged the indecent act Facebook, who were unreachable.
“It was just crazy, I was trying my best to get through to Facebook saying you need to close this down and you need to give me access back because I‘m the administrator and I need to be able to control the content.” she said.
“But there was no one to talk to, no way to contact them directly. I was furious.”
More than a month later, and both business pages and the woman’s account are still under the control of the unknown hackers.
The pornographic videos have been removed but the racy profile pictures still remain.
Since the attack, Ms Plath said both companies had taken a hit to their reputation and finances.
“It is affecting us because new customers are now not coming through Facebook Messenger to make inquiries that they normally would daily,” she said.
IDCARE analyst Kathy Sundstrom said there had been a 40 per cent increase in the “very professional” social media takeovers.
Online users are urged to use two-factor authentication on both their social media and email.