Facebook hit by first wave of "political hacktivism"

Facebook's ongoing problems continue after security firm AVG announced that it has discovered hacking taking place on the site in the form of "political hacktivism" emanating from Turkey, seemingly in retaliation for the recent events in Gaza.

Research by the firm found that all manner of attacks including web site defacements, denial-of-service, information theft and virtual sabotage were coming from two different sources, suggesting only two groups or individuals are involved.

Roger Thompson, AVG's chief research officer, said that although the number attacked so far was relatively small, perhaps less than fifty, there was always a risk that it could increase in number very quickly.

"The number of hacked accounts is fairly small which would indicate that it is not an automated attack. This is the first time, as far as I am aware, that Facebook has been a victim of political hacktivism," he said.

"Given the attack seems to be run by Turkish hackers, and that they once claimed a world record for defacing 37,000 pages in day, we should not discount the thought they might find an automated way to move."

Late last year Twitter was targeted by a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army, which hijacked the web site domain name.