The international media informed us that Facebook has opened an investigation into the publication of downloadable information on the Internet related to the names and phone numbers of more than 267 million of its users. This data was available for download on a hacker's forum belonging to a criminal network.. The disclosure of this stolen data comes as the giant social network seeks to rebuild trust with its users and alleviate their concerns about protecting their information.
US regulators said earlier this month that the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which has been embroiled in a massive scandal involving Facebook data theft, tricked network users into collecting and disposing of their personal information.
The Federal Trade Commission also reported that its investigation, which began in March 2018, concluded that the now-defunct political consulting firm "engaged in deceptive practices to collect personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and subsequent targeting." The panel said the British company, which worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, made "misleading" claims when it lured Facebook users to take a "personality test" promising that it would not download any personal information.
Personal Protection
The security of personal data, and indeed the security of the Internet in general, has become one of the sensitive and strategic issues of concern to many governments of the world at the present time.. It is not surprising to read, for example, that hackers managed to penetrate some private accounts on the e-mail of senior American officials or that International institutions and national security agencies are exposed to electronic attacks.
It is not strange to hear that the armies of the world work annually to qualify hundreds of soldiers and officers to work in the field of electronic warfare within the framework of intelligence and eavesdropping circles, or to hear and read from some correspondents and leaders that electronic warfare has become today a war for which the countries of the world are well prepared, lest it enter their sensitive systems Viruses paralyze their work in the most critical times, within the framework of the “cyber war” that they call the “war of shadows” taking place between armies deep in the heart of “enemy information,” and it is similar to talking about a huge global “chessboard” in which the best minds fight.
In recent years, Germany has been, for several times, a victim of an unprecedented electronic hack in the espionage literature of powerful Western countries. The personal data of hundreds of political officials and public figures, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, were published, following a large-scale hacking or leaking of information. The leaks included telephone lists with hundreds of mobile phone numbers, as well as internal party documents such as member lists. According to several media outlets, including the public network RBB, the leaks also targeted celebrities and journalists. The German Interior Ministry said that all major German political parties, from the Christian Democratic Party to the Greens, were included in the case, including the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
There is no objection, then, for Internet security to become a direct feature of the work of the national security agencies, the interests of the army, and the ministries of defense, which lay down plans and strategies to protect the security of their electronic networks, and thus their internal security.
