Hundreds of Facebook Libra websites appear as hackers seek to profit from new cryptocurrency
Facebook‘s plan to launch its own cryptocurrency next year is already attracting the interest of cyber criminals, according to new research.
The social network announced the Libra cryptocurrency on 18 June, alongside 27 of the world’s biggest companies.
Since that date there has been a spike in website domain registrations for names relating to the new cryptocurrency, as opportunistic web users seek to profit from the new project.
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On 19 June there were more than 100 domains registered relating to Libra, while several dozen were also registered that referenced the associated digital wallet Calibra.
For the most part, these registrations will likely be from people hoping to sell the domain back to Facebook for a marked up price, however others may have more nefarious intentions.
1/15 Facebook is born
On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called 'TheFacebook' from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users
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8/15 Facebook goes public
On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion – the third largest in US history
9/15 Gobbling up the competition
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10/15 One billion users
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11/15 Expanding its empire
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15/15 Unhappy users
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1/15 Facebook is born
On 4 Feb, 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched a website called 'TheFacebook' from his dorm. Within 24 hours the college social network had more than 1,000 users
Wikimedia Commons
2/15 Winklevoss twins sue Zuckerberg
Within one week of launching, fellow Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. It would be four years later when the resulting lawsuit was finally settled
3/15 Open for business
The social network finally opened it platform to everyone on 26 September, 2006. The move proved the catalyst in supercharging the site's already explosive growth
PA
4/15 Billion-dollar bid
Yahoo offered $1 billion to buy Facebook in September 2006 but Zuckerberg turned it down. 'I don’t know what I could do with the money,' Zuckerberg reportedly said. 'I’d just start another social networking site'
Reuters
5/15 In the money
In September 2009, almost five years since the site launched, Facebook turned a profit for the first time
Getty Images/iStockphoto
6/15 Taking the lead
Facebook overtook MySpace in 2010 to become the world’s most popular social network
7/15 Taking on the tech giants
In 2011, Google launched its own social network that it hoped would knock Facebook from its perch. Despite its initial success, Google+ ultimately failed and will be shut down completely in 2019
Getty
8/15 Facebook goes public
On 18 May, 2012, Facebook went public. The initial public offering raised $16 billion – the third largest in US history
9/15 Gobbling up the competition
Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, consolidating its position as the world's leading social network
Reuters
10/15 One billion users
On 4 October, 2012, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit 1 billion users. 'If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honour of serving you,' he wrote in a blog post
Getty Images
11/15 Expanding its empire
In February 2014 Facebook acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $19.3 billion
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
12/15 Two billion users
In June 2017, Facebook passed the 2 billion user milestone
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
13/15 Privacy scandal
On 17 March 2018, news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from around 87 million Facebook users for the purpose of political profiling in the build up to the 2016 US presidential elections
Shutterstock
14/15 Record profits
Despite the scandals and subsequent #DeleteFacebook campaign, Facebook posted record profits just before its 15th anniversary, the equivalent of $7.37 from each of its 2.32 billions users
iStock/Independent
15/15 Unhappy users
A study found that people are happier when they don’t use Facebook, adding to mounting evidence surrounding the impact social media has on mental health
Rex Features
Researchers at Digital Shadows said that the websites hosting malicious content can be split up into two categories: Those actively impersonating the legitimate Libra website; and those promoting scams that abuse the Libra name.
“Unsurprisingly, there have already been several domains that have been set up to be exact copies of Facebook’s official Libra and Calibra websites,” Alex Guirakhoo, a strategic intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows, wrote in a blog post describing the issue.
“Instead of relying on media buzz and hype around the brand, these types of scams instead aim to convince victims that they are on a legitimate website, and therefore more likely to trust it with their personal and financial data.”
In order to appear legitimate, cyber criminals register domains using Greek, Cyrillic, and other alphabets that resemble those from the Roman alphabet used in English.
For example, a website domain could be made to look like the official domain by substituting a lower-case ‘a’ with the Cyrillic character ‘а’.
Digital Shadows discovered at least six examples of domains copying the Libra or Calibra website using this homographic technique.
One of the fake websites referenced in the report claims to offer visitors the chance to buy Libra with the ethereum cryptocurrency, offering a 25 per cent bonus.
“For the most convincing of sites, it can be nigh-impossible to determine which is legitimate and which is fake,” Mr Guirakhoo wrote.
“If it seems implausible or too good to be true, then it probably is. Scammers will constantly try to find ways to outsmart their victims – stay ahead of the game and avoid grandiose claims of fortune.”
A Facebook spokesperson told The Independent: “We’re aware of the issue and will work with the Libra Association to take appropriate action.”
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