A well know Internet hacker is reportedly offering to sell up to 1.5 million usernames and passwords belonging to registered Facebook users. Nobody knows quite how the hacker, known as “kirllos”, came to have the login details for so many Facebook users, but if the story turns out to be true, many users of Facebook could find themselves frozen out of their accounts, or worse.
According to a report from VeriSign’s iDefense group, the hacker is selling the usernames and passwords in bundles of 1,000. He is selling them for $25 where the users have less than 10 Facebook friends, and is charging $45 for user accounts that have more than 10 friends.
It is also believed that the New Zealand based hacker has already sold details for 700,000 registered Facebook users.
The Russian born hacker may have created a phishing site for people to enter their Facebook details into, or he could have acquired the login details by using malware. Either way, 1.5 million people could find their Facebook accounts compromised.
The login details could be used to gather information about people that can be used for identity theft, such as applying for credit cards in your name, or for confidence scams on your friends by sending them messages pretending to be you.
The official advice is to change your password now.
