Meta Employees Reportedly Took Bribes To Hack Instagram & Facebook Accounts

Hacking activities are a dime a dozen on the World Wide Web. Rarely, though, do you hear of them being an inside job.

Meta, parent to some of the most widely-used social networking apps, fired or disciplined more than two dozen workers and contractors in the past year after they were found to have enabled access to accounts through unauthorized means—and even taking bribes on some occasions, according to a shocking report by the Wall Street Journal.

Citing documents it has seen, the WSJ details that Meta employees have been caught accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to let hackers get into users’ accounts.

In addition, users who were locked out of their Facebook or Instagram accounts got theirs back through third-party services that engaged insider contacts who were willing to retrieve them.

Employees apparently utilized Meta’s internal recovery tool called ‘Online Operations’ (or Oops), which allowed them to file reports to retrieve accounts as well as manually restore access themselves.

‘Oops’ was set in place to help out users who cannot get into their accounts because they have either forgotten their passwords or were hacked. It is not for general use and is typically reserved for celebrities or family members.

Among the personnel who were dismissed were security guards who had access to Meta’s internal security mechanism.

As per the report, Meta took the relevant actions following an internal investigation by its leadership into the possible misuse of the ‘Oops’ platform.

[via PetaPixel, CNET, Wall Street Journal, cover photo 242794299 © Worawee Meepian | Dreamstime.com]