Meta (before Facebook Inc), which groups together messaging applications and social networks Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, announced the expansion of the program Facebook Protect to 50 countries, including Mexico. Facebook Protect is a functionality of the social network Facebook that allows to protect the accounts of some users from malicious attacks.
Born in 2018, in preparation for the 2020 elections in the United States, Facebook Protect offers candidates, public officials and agencies at both the federal and state levels; as well as to journalists, activists and human rights defenders the possibility of activating two-step authentication, in addition to carrying out controls to detect possible threats of hacking.
“Facebook Protect is our safety program for people who are most likely to be attacked by malicious actors, including human rights defenders, journalists and government officials. These groups are the center of critical communities for public debate, ”he said. Nathaniel Gleicher, Security Policy Leader at Meta at a press conference.
The measure comes a few weeks after Facebook Inc changed its name to Meta and a former employee of the company revealed in various media in the United States that the company was aware of the potential damage caused by its applications. The program began rolling out last September and is currently in 12 countries; the company expects to reach 50 countries by the end of 2022, including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
According to Meta, those who are eligible for this functionality received a notification in their news section of the app. The message asks them to turn on two-step authentication on Facebook and that they generate a secure password, in case it can be enforced.
Registration in this program for some user accounts of Facebook it will be mandatory depending on the country. In the future, the application will not allow access to the account if you do not have the registration in Facebook Protect, which will cause users to enable double factor authentication – only 4% of Facebook use this security feature─ and it will put in place additional automated defenses to protect these users’ accounts.
“For example, it increases detection for attacks that human rights defenders, journalists and public officials may face. Mark these accounts in our internal systems; so if we receive a report from one of them or observe constant attacks against them, our teams will know that there is something that is possibly happening, “he said.
Not only Facebook is implementing actions to protect the accounts of some users. From a wave of hacks of WhatsApp accounts, the messaging application, which is also part of Meta, gave the workshop “How to protect yourself in WhatsApp: tools and functions to stay safe and use the application responsibly ”in the Mexican Senate.
Gleicher said that while the program Facebook Protect only applies to the application Facebook and to its users, the company seeks to expand it to its other applications and that they will use the learning from it to help protect other services.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx