This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube news segment (title: "Man Accused of Hacking emails Compromising Facebook Accounts of Women www.IDTheftSecurity.com") dated 2011-01-16. It’s a Fox 25 report by Jared Holbrook about a suspect (identified as George Brock/Bronk) accused of hacking Facebook and email accounts of dozens of women across 17 states to obtain and distribute nude and semi-nude photos (about 46 victims and 172 explicit files). The clip features security consultant Robert Siciliano (McAfee) explaining how attackers use publicly shared information and security questions to reset passwords, and offering advice to lock down privacy settings and use obscure security answers.
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A suspect is accused of hacking into the Facebook accounts of dozens of women. Some of the victims from New England. Investigators say he would search for nude and semi-nude photos of the women. Fox 25's Jared Holbrook is here now with details.
Jared. Well, dozens of women across the country have been victimized by this hacker, and he was doing this from his California home right around the Sacramento area. Now, just to give you an idea of how many victims were out there, We're looking at women from 17 states across the country, all of the red dots that you see. And here in New England, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Here's the scary part. According to a local computer security expert we talked to, this was easy to do. It's really easy. Robert Siciliano is a consultant for McAfee, a major internet security company. He says what 23-year-old George Brock from California did, anyone can do.
All the answers for the bad guy to change your password are on the internet. Many of them are on your Facebook page.
Bronk pleaded guilty to 7 felonies. He stole private information on Facebook from at least 46 women across the country, including Mass. and New Hampshire. Bronk used their private information to hack into their email accounts and find nude or partially nude photos in private files. Investigators say he posted them on their Facebook pages, emailed them to all their contacts, and blackmailed one to get more nude pictures. 172 email files with explicit pictures of women were found on his computer.
This is without a doubt a, um, electronic thrill for the bad guy. Changing an email password is simple. Here's how. All the hacker does is he gets your email address from your Facebook page, goes to your web-based email program, hits the forgot password button, and then has to answer a number of different qualifying questions. The answer to the qualifying questions are on your Facebook page.
For example, if the security question is, "What is your pet's name?" and you have it posted, you're hacked.
I've been screaming for a few years that Facebook is being used to crack the code to access people's usernames and passwords. And now we're starting to see the repercussion of people sharing too much information on social media.
So to protect yourself, Siciliano says lock down your privacy settings. Don't put your email publicly on your Facebook page and create obscure answers to security questions. And remember, even with high privacy settings, you're not secure. Scary, right? Bottom line, don't put anything on Facebook you don't want everyone to see. Now Brock will be sentenced in March. He faces 6 years in prison. Jared Holbrook, Fox 25 News.
