Hackers Steal Private Facebook Messages of 81,000 Users

A report by news site BBC states hackers have managed to extract private Facebook messages from 81,000 users. Most of the users affected are located in Russia and Ukraine with some cases also reported on other countries such as the US, UK, and Brazil. The hackers offered to sell the extracted information for 10 cents per account.

After further investigation, cybersecurity analysts at Digital Shadows determined that the hack originated from browser extensions embedded with malicious code. The firm's analysts have not been able to determine which browser extensions were responsible for the breach. Facebook has stated they are taking steps to protect users affected by the hack.

It is unknown which hacker group is responsible for the breach. The IP address of one of the websites selling the private messages was tracked back to St. Petersburg, Russia. The same IP address has also been used to distribute a password cracking trojan known as LokiBot Trojan.