Facebook Hacked: Another Benefit Of Decentralized Social Media

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It seems hacks are a part of life in the digital world. Ever since the Internet went mainstream, this is certainly something that happens with regularity.

Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing fields and will remain that way. As more of our world goes digital, protecting ourselves is going to be vitally important.

Security is not something the Internet is known for. Since its inception, security was rather lax. The protocols really did not provide much of a wall against intruders. Thus, we came to depend upon 3rd parties.

Blockchain helps with this somewhat. While not the ideal solution, it is a step up. There is no honey pot on a decentralized system to access. We see this with cryptocurrency. While the media makes a big deal about crypto hacks, those are mostly tied to centralized exchanges. They contain the honey pot that will allow hackers to clear out millions of dollars.

Yet, after 12 years of being in the open, the Bitcoin blockchain has never been hacked. At this point, it is also likely impossible to wage a 51% attack.


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The existing social media structure is not serving people very well. As we know, the user is the product, meaning all activity that occurs on the sites are sold to advertisers. This is big business and allows these companies to pull in millions of dollars.

At the same time, we saw how they censor opposing points of view that go against what they want promoted. This means that these entities literally have the ability to condition what people think through the algorithmic programming of what they see.

We now can add the fact that personal data is online for free to the list.

It was announced that Facebook was compromised putting the data of half a billion users at risk. This is more than the entire population of the United States, by about 50%.

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According to an article on Cointelegraph, the leak includes “Phone number, Facebook ID, Full name, Location, Past Location, Birthdate, (Sometimes) Email Address, Account Creation Date, Relationship Status, Bio.”

Not surprising Facebook is not openly acknowledging what took place. It claims that there was a problem in 2019 which it fixed. However, it now appears the data of more than half a billion users are on the Internet, open for all to see.

The reality is that companies have done a terrible job with protecting our data. Hacks take place on a regular basis, with companies usually being very slow to respond publicly. They try to hide the fact that it took place and minimize how many were affected.

Governments tend not to be any help either. Instead, they just turn a blind eye instead of financially harming these entities. In the U.S., companies could be fined up to $10,000 per account. That would put Facebook out of business.

Instead, this will simply be a footnote in history. Facebook will suffer no consequences as a result of their behavior. Rather, the users are the ones who have to deal with the outcomes.


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Here we see another advantage to blockchain based social media. In addition to all the other benefits touted such as the beginning of Web 3.0 and immutability, a platform like Hive offers increased security.

Like Bitcoin, the blockchain is not easy to hack. With it updating every 3 seconds, the data is always in flux with the block validators in constant communication. This means that anything that is out of alignment with the consensus is rejected.

We also see the sign up process being much different than with the traditional social media platforms. On Hive, one can sign up for an account without revealing all the personal data. At the same time, tracking is not done like we see on those platforms. Since advertising is minimal at most, the idea of selling data is completely foreign to these applications.

Unfortunately, security, or a lack thereof, is something we are becoming immune to. Hacks occur with such frequency that we simply accept them as a way of life. While that might be the case, we should expect more protection.

Nevertheless, this is one of the problem with 3rd parties. When they put us at risk, there is little we can do.

As the mountain of evidence grows against the centralized social media platforms, we should be able to leverage this for our own benefit. Blockchain offers a viable solution for some of these problems. With a key system, there is no central repository for hackers to access to gain control of an account. Instead, one has the ability to protect him or herself from outside threats, at least to this degree.

Obviously, dealing with keys is a pain, especially for newer people. However, it is much less of a hassle as compared to dealing with something like identity theft.

The bottom line is that for all their faults, centralized social media entities simply are not secure. Twitter was subject to a Bitcoin scam a number of months back when well known accounts were accessed and Tweets sent out promoting the fraud.

We just keep getting more examples piling up of what is taking place. Centralized social media is harmful to people.

Perhaps a few will start to learn.


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52 comments
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I could compare it with Tesla, people were blaming Tesla company when one or two Tesla cars caught on fire. But oil based cars caught on fire pretty often. Likewise, people blame decentralised system for hacks which happened once in a decade and which are not so often. Pretty sure decentralised social media is a lot better than main stream social media which also sells user data and gives nothing to uses in return.

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Very true. Hacks do occur in the decentralized world but it is centralized companies that are the cause. Not the technology itself.

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pixresteemer_incognito_angel_mini.png
Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 51 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
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I saw the news this morning and was thinking, how many times has user data been compromised till now? Hacked, sold to third parties etc.

I was wondering what is needed to happen for these people to realize the abuse they are exposed to on a daily bases?

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I'm counting the days when Project Blank will be launched. While I did some practice on noise.cash it seems that they are turning into shilling just BCH posts and might tip freely only those, so the social microposting app from LEO Finance should beat anything out there and be a pioneer of its own.

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We are all counting it down. Hopefully we will get word on it soon. Thus far, we have silence when it comes to ProjectBlank.

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I read about this, there Is a bad news for people involved un crtpto for their information hacked, this Is the reason why i do not have account un social network like this, AND Is the oportunity To said people come AND see how our social descentralización network works specially without censorchip

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The size of the back is really telling. Half a billion people are potentially affected. That is enormous.

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Yeah there Is a lot of people, de hope this guys consider that they área the product useafull for this big tech companies.

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The odds of them changing is not great. Their business model is way too profitable and we, as consumers, seem to accept it.

Thus we need a "better mousetrap".

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People aren't still interested in what decentralisation has to offer, unfortunately no a lot of people still believe in the fallibility of Facebook. It can do no wrong. It's such a shame.

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Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you. . Keep up the fantastic work

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Cyber security is becoming more important every day. It seems that these legacy companies care more about profits and protecting their users. Log chain has inherent security and there are definitely flaws, but overall I find giving the individual their keys and with the layers of security provided by blockchain make it better overall.

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It seems that these legacy companies care more about profits and protecting their users.

Facebook only want to exploit its users for money.
The users are simply products for Facebook.
Facebook is selling their data, showing them advertisements to earn money from their views/visits, and who knows what other abuses Facebook do to its users on a daily basis.
And the users are simply allowing/letting Facebook to do these things by continuously using Facebook.

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There is no doubt that cyber security is becoming a bigger issue. The more powerful the technology we are dealing with, the greater the need for security.

We are simply not getting that from the mega corporations.

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...However, it is much less of a hassle as compared to dealing with something like identity theft.
I am much more concerned about the hack of Equifax than Facebook's. Also most people have more to lose from identify theft from the KYC that happens on centralized exchanges than their bitcoin keys.

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I want to know if the indirect user profiles they were building were counted among the hacked information. This is because Facebook has access to a ton of data including pictures and your friends tagging you. Therefore even if you never made an account there, they likely have quite a bit of information about you.

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Yes, just like Google and Microsoft, and every other giant company.

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Yea I agree. I personally am more afraid when the government works together with all the big tech platforms because they can aggregate all the information and have a more comprehensive profile of us than any single tech company.

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I am not sure anyone truly knows. Whatever happened, bet the ranch that Facebook will downplay it as much as they can.

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In the U.S., companies could be fined up to $10,000 per account. That would put Facebook out of business.

Instead, this will simply be a footnote in history. Facebook will suffer no consequences as a result of their behavior. Rather, the users are the ones who have to deal with the outcomes.

People should stop using Facebook. That would put Facebook out of business.

Facebook can (and will) do anything to its users (to exploit them for money), as long as they keep using it.

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I agree completely but that isnt about to happen. Not anytime soon.

The key is for the decentralized world to create and offer a better solution. If that happens, then we might see a mass exodus.

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Good thing I put the least details possible on my facebook account. I can't wait for the day blockchain based social media sites become mainstream so I can delete all my traditional social media accounts

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Yeah that is the goal for many people. Sadly, for now, it is still a wait.

We need blank to emerge quickly. That will start the process going forward.

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I will never understand why people would trust Facebook with their private info. Even when you delete your info it still resides on their servers.

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There is no security with the company.

And now they want to control the onramp to the Metaverse with Occulus. People who sign onto that system are crazy.

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Thankfully I am not part of the rabble who joined Facebook. This won't change anything as people are sheep and even with the last negative news about photo recognition software being used people still use it. Idiots all of them and deserve this.

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(Edited)

Wow! Facebook Hacked!This is an important reminder of the vulnerability of Web 1.0
Not even the mighty Facebook can protect itself...

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I think these security breaches happen far more often than we believe. I just think about the number of times I get a seemingly arbitrary message on Facebook that goes something like "you've been logged out of your Facebook account for security reasons. Please log in using this link with a temporary password and create a new password."

Those are not phishing attempts... they are legit Facebook communications.

That said, venues like Hive are still "too complicated" for most people. I'm hopeful, however, that LeoFinance's leadership (in this case the possibility of crating "light" accounts) will serve as an ongoing "incubator" for changes that can also be applied to "Greater Hive," like is now the case with likely changes in the curation curves/timing.

=^..^=

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Unfortunately, such attacks sometimes occur. It just goes to show at every turn that we need to take care of our privacy and security. On Hive, we are the ones with ownership over the keys and we are the only ones responsible for ourselves. This is the power of true decentralisation. The power of Hive.

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It definitely sucks for Facebook and the users that had some of their info leaked... but this proves this should serve as a lesson for many to really consider protecting their digital identities and not willingly give so much private information so easily on these sites.

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The problem as you so correctly pointed out, is that most people have become desensitized to the hacks. Especially when you consider that most of the world lives paycheck to paycheck. They have nothing worth stealing in a lot of cases so they just ignore the danger and hope it never affects them. This, of course, is exactly what these big corporations want. They put out these little news stories months, if not years, after the fact. Long after anyone can actually do anything about it. And since they're in bed with the left, the government doesn't punish them and the mainstream media basically gives them a pass. "Please don't let it happen again, Zucks." "No problem, we won't." "Ok, we're all good then. Nothing to see here."

Ridiculous.

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Estas es lo cierto, que gran aporte. Saludos.

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I just learned about this recent Facebook hack. So what are they going to do now? Do they even care of those account owners? It's been happening a lot of times with tons of accounts compromised.

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Yes, blockchain is far superior, and for the other websites best practice is don't put anything important there.

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My email got compromised as well, thankfully they haven't succeeded in breaking in. It gives us an idea of why Hive matters. Data leaks have always been an attack vector to many sites out there and it keeps happening over and over again - yet most people stay ignorant until they get compromised.

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