One million researched how to hack Meta platforms in the last year

In the past year, at least 1 million people have researched how to hack into the Meta platforms, and 70 percent want to know how to hack into someone’s Meta accounts, according to a study by NordVPN.

Researchers analyzed nearly 2 million online searches in 50 countries, in English and other languages, with the word “hack” on Google. Meta’s social media platforms, including Facebook, were in 1,387,020 of the searches.

Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook lead the way in platforms that individuals want to hack the most.

“However harmless these searches may look, they may end up breaching someone’s privacy. A person may get control over their ex-partner’s social media account, or a business owner may disrupt their competitor’s operations, not to mention that many hackers remember starting their ‘careers’ from those Google searches,” Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, said in a press release. “Today, a lot of harm can be done if a person’s social media accounts get hacked. For example, Facebook is the second most popular social login to access third-party sites. Once obtained, Facebook accounts can open the gates to online stores that hold credit card data and even more.”

The press release stated that several studies reveal about 15 percent of social media users have experienced unauthorized activity on their social media accounts. NordVPN’s new study showed that 9 in 10 know at least one person whose social media accounts were hacked.

According to NordVPN, India has the most users in all three platforms and also the most wannabe Meta hackers. In Mexico, Argentina and the Philippines where the GDP is lower than in western countries, hackers may find the absence of other economic opportunities as motivation to commit cybercrime.

Even more frightening is the fact that Russia and China are known for large active hacker communities, yet they are not in NordVPN’s study. The press release stated that researchers in the study selected “entry-level” knowledge, so regions in the study have large communities of beginner and amateur hackers.

The second largest community is in Mexico, followed by Brazil, Argentina, Philippines, the United States, Nigeria, Indonesia, South Africa and France.

So you want to hack Facebook?

NordVPN’s study revealed that “How to hack Facebook” is an entry-level search done by individuals with little to no idea where to begin to hack the social media platform.

“But other popular related searches include the names of specific tools people use for this purpose, showing that they are performing multiple searches to refine their knowledge before starting their attack,” Warmenhoven said.

The press release stated that top search results are popular blogs and forums containing tips shared by anonymous users to hack into social media accounts. Individuals can also find tools and services for beginner hackers that rarely work but can cause harm to the social media account owner. Users’ data may be gathered with spyware or malware. Self-published ebooks are for sale on Amazon claiming to explain how to hack into Meta’s most popular platforms.

So you don’t want your Facebook hacked?

“It is not those amateur hackers who try to google hacking methods that we should be cautious about. But we should learn how to protect ourselves from real hackers because cybercrime is rising by 30 percent every year,” Warmenhoven said.

Warmenhoven offered a list of the common hacking methods and suggestions to keep your social media safe.

1. The simplest hacking method is brute-force attacks when hackers guess until they get the numbers right. These attacks are often automated. Special algorithms try out thousands of password variations each second. Strong, unique passwords will keep your social media protected against such attacks.
2. Facebook and Meta have experienced exploitation of data leaks, which happen after every major data breach when millions of user credentials are for sale on the dark web. Prevent exploitation of your data with multi-factor authentication.
3. Hackers put themselves between two parties exchanging data in man-in-the-middle attacks, which allows them to spy on private conversations, steal credentials, or piggyback on login requests authorized by multi-factor authentication (MFA). A virtual private network (VPN) can protect your social media from such an attack. A VPN routes your online traffic through a secure encrypted tunnel, protects you from network spies and man-in-the-middle attacks. If hackers intercept your encrypted data, they are unable to see what’s inside.