Facebook says hackers in Pakistan targeted Afghan users amid government collapse
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
January 30, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2023
Facebook says hackers in Pakistan targeted Afghan users amid government collapse

South Asia

Reuters
16 November, 2021, 08:00 pm
Last modified: 16 November, 2021, 08:12 pm

Related News

  • Pakistan govt lifts petrol, diesel prices by 35 rupees a litre
  • Ten children killed in northwest Pakistan boat capsize
  • 40 killed in southwest Pakistan bus crash
  • Thousands in Afghanistan protest Quran-burning incident in Sweden
  • IMF announces visit to crisis-hit Pakistan

Facebook says hackers in Pakistan targeted Afghan users amid government collapse

Facebook said the group, known in the security industry as SideCopy, shared links to websites hosting malware which could surveil people's devices. Targets included people connected to the government, military and law enforcement in Kabul, it said. Facebook said it removed SideCopy from its platform in August

Reuters
16 November, 2021, 08:00 pm
Last modified: 16 November, 2021, 08:12 pm
The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019. Photo :Reuters
The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019. Photo :Reuters

Hackers from Pakistan used Facebook to target people in Afghanistan with connections to the previous government during the Taliban's takeover of the country, the company's threat investigators said in an interview with Reuters.

Facebook said the group, known in the security industry as SideCopy, shared links to websites hosting malware which could surveil people's devices. Targets included people connected to the government, military and law enforcement in Kabul, it said. Facebook said it removed SideCopy from its platform in August.

The social media company, which recently changed its name to Meta, said the group created fictitious personas of young women as "romantic lures" to build trust and trick targets into clicking phishing links or downloading malicious chat apps. It also compromised legitimate websites to manipulate people into giving up their Facebook credentials.

"It's always difficult for us to speculate as to the end goal of the threat actor," Facebook's head of cyber espionage investigations, Mike Dvilyanski, said. "We don't know exactly who was compromised or what the end result of that was."

Major online platforms and email providers including Facebook, Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp's LinkedIn have said they took steps to lock down Afghan users' accounts during the Taliban's swift takeover of the country this past summer.

Facebook said it had not previously disclosed the hacking campaign, which it said ramped up between April and August, due to safety concerns about its employees in the country and the need for more work to investigate the network. It said it shared information with the U.S. State Department at the time it took down the operation.

Investigators also said Facebook had last month disabled the accounts of two hacking groups which it linked to Syria's Air Force Intelligence.

Facebook said one group, known as the Syrian Electronic Army, targeted human rights activists, journalists and others opposing the ruling regime, while the other targeted people linked to the Free Syrian Army and former military personnel who had joined opposition forces.

Facebook's head of global threat disruption, David Agranovich, said the Syria and Afghanistan cases showed cyber espionage groups leveraging periods of uncertainty during conflicts when people might be more susceptible to manipulation.

The company said a third hacking network in Syria, which it linked to the Syrian government and removed in October, targeted minority groups, activists and members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and Syria Civil Defense, or White Helmets.

Tech / Top News / World+Biz

Facebook / Pakistan / Afghanistan

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: Collected
    Economic slump drags down growth in VAT collection from big cos
  • It's corruption that bites business harder: CPD
    It's corruption that bites business harder: CPD
  • Import slowdown to affect economic growth: ADB country head
    Import slowdown to affect economic growth: ADB country head

MOST VIEWED

  • People wait for their turn to get fuel at a petrol station, a day after a country-wide power breakdown, in Peshawar, Pakistan, January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
    Pakistan govt lifts petrol, diesel prices by 35 rupees a litre
  • Photo: Collected
    Ten children killed in northwest Pakistan boat capsize
  • FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Adani Group is seen on the facade of its Corporate House on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo
    India's Adani says $2.5 bln share sale on track even as bankers mull changes
  • People rescuing the victims. Photo: BSS/AFP
    40 killed in southwest Pakistan bus crash
  • Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe looks on during an interview with Reuters at Presidential Secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka August 18, 2022. REUTERS/ Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo
    Sri Lanka leader suspends parliament until policy address
  • FILE PHOTO: Afghan female students walk near Kabul University in Kabul, Afghanistan, December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Ali Khara
    Afghan female students not allowed to sit university entrance exam - Taliban ministry

Related News

  • Pakistan govt lifts petrol, diesel prices by 35 rupees a litre
  • Ten children killed in northwest Pakistan boat capsize
  • 40 killed in southwest Pakistan bus crash
  • Thousands in Afghanistan protest Quran-burning incident in Sweden
  • IMF announces visit to crisis-hit Pakistan

Features

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

12h | Mode
Illustration: TBS

'The silver lining is that the worst is sort of behind us': Hamid Rashid, UN economist

15h | Panorama
Photo: Bloomberg

BuzzFeed and AI are a match made in fad city

14h | Panorama
Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

5h | TBS Entertainment
Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

6h | TBS SPORTS
“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

8h | TBS Round Table
What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

1d | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

3
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

4
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

5
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]