Facebook hackers wanted to sell garbage ads not influence votes, claims report

The hackers that managed to obtain access to 30 million Facebook accounts were not acting under the orders of a foreign state, a report in the Wall Street Journal has claimed. Citing people familiar with the company’s internal investigation, the report says that the hackers were instead affiliated with a supposed “digital marketing company” and sought to make money via deceptive advertising. Facebook has so far declined to publicly comment on the identity of the hackers, citing its ongoing cooperation with the FBI as the reason for its silence. The hack, which was disclosed by Facebook in late September, is thought to have resulted in the theft of 30 million access tokens for the service. These digital keys would theoretically allow a... Continue reading…