It’s hard to put a wall against the security slip-ups on the web. Though various measures, such as the two factor authentication system exist, the hackers somehow find a way to breach into a secure system. Facebook is no exception, as hacking into the world’s most dominant social networking platform gives hackers a gateway to hacker-heaven.
In order to ensure that the security of its 1 billion plus users is maintained, Facebook has announced a new feature that will alter its users against state-sponsored attacks. Facebook will issue a pop up notification to the users whose account is under target. The users would then have to turn on Login Approvals, which is an added security measure that ensures that their account remains safe.
Similar to the feature in Gmail, if a Facebook account is logged in from a new device, Facebook will alert and notify the users. As an extra measure, Facebook will send a security code to the number registered with the website. The users will then be able to login using this code alone.
Alex Stamos, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer, stated that
the company has always taken steps to secure accounts it suspects to have been compromised, but it has now decided to show this new warning when it believes an attack is government-sponsored.
We do this because these types of attacks tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others, and we strongly encourage affected people to take the actions necessary to secure all of their online accounts,
he added.
The company is, however, tight lipped about the exact process it uses to determine whether an attack is state-sponsored or just a wannabe hacker trying to apply his classroom skills. But, it believes that the system is well enough to differentiate between the two. Only if the all the check points are cleared on the scale of suspected state sponsored attack will Facebook issue a warning.
Facebook added that if the attack is state-sponsored, then the hackers might have accessed the users Facebook account through the users PC’s. This, it added, means users would have to clean up their systems so that a future attack is avoided.
Google had launched a feature that goes along similar lines in 2012 to protect Gmail accounts from getting hacked. Facebook took a few years to realize that it too needed a similar wall against hackers. Though it launched Security Check-up tool to alert users about suspicious logins, this new feature might add another shield to the wall, as state-sponsored attacks continue to plague the online sphere.
