Hackers assemble in plain sight on Facebook, where they trade ideas, stories and stolen credit card information in groups dedicated to cybercrime, according to a blog from Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, a commercial threat intelligence group.
Cisco Talos conducted its own study of Facebook's groups and found 74 groups related to cybercrime. Most had obvious names like "Spam Professional," "Spammer & Hacker Professional" or "Facebook hack (Phishing)," according to the report. Members in the groups posted to sell account credentials, email spamming tools, or stolen bank and credit card information, among other items.
The groups could be found by simply searching keywords like "spam." Once a user joined a group, Facebook suggested other similar groups, making it easy to get involved across networks. Together, the groups had 385,000 members.
Cisco Talos reported the groups using Facebook's report function and only some were removed. When Cisco Talos worked directly with Facebook's security team, most of the groups were removed, according to the blog. However, new groups continue to pop up, indicating more efforts may be needed to keep malicious groups from forming on social media networks.
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