{"id":18563,"date":"2022-03-22T13:10:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T21:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/22\/news-12296\/"},"modified":"2022-03-22T13:10:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T21:10:07","slug":"news-12296","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/22\/news-12296\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook users wary of security mail find themselves locked out of accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Christopher Boyd| Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 20:47:17 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for sites and services to offer additional forms of protection on top of regular security features. Some of the bigger ones even go the extra mile, protecting from attacks up to a potential nation state level.<\/p>\n

The most famous example of this recently is likely Google. Its Advanced Protection Program (APP) was deployed to warn people that Fancy Bear was on the prowl<\/a>. We often see advanced security features like the APP feed back into security features for regular service users too. This is all very good.<\/p>\n

What isn\u2019t perhaps quite as good, is when not taking up the offer of additional security features results in a total lock out of your account. This is the complaint that’s been raised by many Facebook users over the last few days.<\/p>\n

What happened?<\/h2>\n

Facebook has a service similar to Google\u2019s APP which it is rolling out to users. That service is called Facebook Protect, and it’s being expanded to more and more countries. As per Facebook’s own description<\/a> of what it does:<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re expanding Facebook Protect, our security program for groups of people that are more likely to be targeted by malicious hackers, such as human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials.<\/em><\/p>\n

No action is required unless you\u2019re prompted to enroll.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re also making it easier for these groups of people to set up two-factor authentication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sounds like a good plan! However, the roll out and various interactions with Facebook Protect haven\u2019t gone well for everybody. At the beginning of March, people started to receive emails out of the blue which also included a clickable button to set everything up. It also pointed out that if recipients didn\u2019t enable the feature, they\u2019d be locked out of their account.<\/p>\n

When is\/isn’t the promise of a lockout real?<\/h2>\n

This immediately threw recipients into confusion, as they tried to figure out if they were being phished:<\/p>\n

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So… I received an email this morning from @meta<\/a> telling me that my account "requires advanced security from Facebook Protect" because it is a potential target for hackers. There's a button in the email to "turn on Facebook Protect."…<\/p>\n

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) March 1, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n