Clicking on random FB apps may allow hackers to steal personal data: Cyber experts

Hackers these days are waiting to access your personal details using such enticing apps, caution cyber experts.

The victims whose data have been stolen or accounts hacked have now reached the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police. Special teams have been formed to look into instances of hackers stealing user data via facebook.

“Facebook is undeniably one of the biggest web companies in the world. For hackers, it is a dream to hack through the system of companies like Facebook and open doors of unlimited advantageous possibilities such as earning big through bounty programs,” a source in the Cyber Cell said.

After receiving hundreds of complaints related to account hacking, senior officials said : “Facebook is no more safe as your data is being stolen by hackers. Though you have may have adjusted privacy settings on your profile but the hackers are covertly accessing your personal photographs and data. Following the threat, the cyber experts warn users to avoid  clicking on a spam messages or posts on Facebook.”

According to cyber experts, the recent Facebook app (updated version) is accessing all the data stored in your mobile phone as well. “Be it the photographs you have clicked or be it any photograph that is being shared on Whatsapp or any other app on your phone! ” warn experts.

The users of the most popular social networking website—Facebook are complaining that their accounts are being hacked. Cyber experts claim that the fault lies mainly with the users as they habitually ignore the ‘terms and conditions’. As a result, hackers manage to access private information with ease.

Speaking to Millennium Post, cyber expert Pawan Duggal, said : “These days users are often using app facilities on facebook that lure them by promising to tell them about their past and future.  If you click on the app, you will get to know several interesting things about yourself. The apps are made in such a way that the users get carried away and ignore the  terms and conditions. To provide the info, the app accesses your personal messages, photographs, friend list. In this way, your Facebook profile is cloned and the personal data becomes public and thereby ready to be misused by hackers.”

“For Facebook, the users are only a ‘data’ and other application providers connect with Facebook to access your data. When a person installs, the app on his/her smart phone, most of the time the user keeps the app on auto-update mode. These apps keep on updating and along with the new features the policies also change,” Rakesh Sinha, another cyber expert said.

There are reports that Facebook’s security team is inundated with complaints of hacking, the team is collecting adequate proof that malicious hackers were able to penetrate into the company’s server and instal a backdoor that aims to steal the login credentials and details of Facebook users.