Meta Takes Down Phishing Network of Indian CyberRoot Risk Advisory

TECHNOLOGY

According to a report, Meta, parent company of Facebook, said that it had taken down more than 40 accounts operated by an Indian company called CyberRoot Risk Advisory that was allegedly involved in the services in which countries hire individuals or companies for hacking.

According to the company’s Threat Report on the Surveillance-for-Hire Industry, which was released on December 15, 2022, these accounts were focused on collecting data from users in Myanmar, India, Taiwan, the United States, and China. These individuals included military personnel, pro-democracy activists, government employees, politicians, and journalists.

A network of more than forty Facebook and Instagram accounts owned by an Indian company known as CyberRoot Risk Advisory Private was taken down by us. CyberRoot’s activity has primarily been manifested primarily in the social engineering and phishing, frequently intended to trick people into giving up their credentials to various online accounts across the internet, rather than directly sharing malware on our apps, the report stated.

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Meta says that CyberRoot used fake accounts to create fictitious personas that impersonated journalists, business executives, and media figures in order to appear more credible and gain trust with the people they were targeting around the world.

According to a report, CyberRoot may have created accounts that were very similar to accounts that are associated with data of users, with only slight changes in the username in an effort to trick people into engaging.

According to Meta, the company has targeted people in a variety of industries worldwide, including cosmetic surgery and law firms in Australia, real estate and investment firms in Russia, private equity firms and pharmaceutical companies in the United States, environmental and anti-corruption activists in Angola, gambling entities in the United Kingdom, and mining firms in New Zealand.

They were centered around business chiefs, attorneys, specialists, activists, columnists and individuals from the ministry in nations like Kazakhstan, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Iceland, the report said.

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Meta continues to investigate and take action against spyware vendors operating in approximately 200 countries and territories, including China, Russia, Israel, the United States, and India.

According to the research conducted by the social media company, the global surveillance-for-hire industry continues to expand and indiscriminately targets individuals, such as journalists, activists, litigants, and members of the political opposition, in order to collect intelligence, manipulate, and compromise their devices and online accounts.