Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Interpol chief has Facebook identity stolen

Criminals use bogus ID to research police targets

He's one of the most powerful people in world policing, but on Facebook Interpol chief Ronald K. Noble is just as vulnerable to identity theft as anyone else.

At last week's inagural Interpol Information Security Conference in Hong Kong, secretary general Noble revealed that criminals had set up two accounts impersonating him on the networking site during this summer's high-profile global dragnet, 'Operation Infra-Red'.

The fraud was discovered only recently by Interpol's Security Incident Response Team.

"One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red," Noble told delegates.

Operation Infra-Red, which took place between May and July of this year, was a global, Interpol-led operation to crack down on named criminal fugitives accused of murder, paedophilia, fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and money laundering, who had fled national jurisdictions. The operation led to 130 arrests.

Noble is not believed to have had a professional profile on Facebook although his organisation does.

"Cybercrime is emerging as a very concrete threat. Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, it may in fact be one of the most dangerous criminal threats we will ever face," Noble was quoted as saying.

Although Facebook itself wasn't compromised in any way, the example cited by the Interpol head hinges on the ease with which the criminals were able to forge his identity without challenge. This is a problem both Facebook, and that other giant of social media, Twitter, have been grappling with.

Even for non-VIPs using real accounts, Facebook is a controversial place to put certain types of data. Last week, a study found that many US SMEs had suffered security problems they blamed on employee interest in the site.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Facebook, Infra, Interpol, Noble
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Facebook, interpol, Personal Tech, security
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Best Practices for Oracle License Management: Optimise Usage and Minimise Audit Liability
    With Oracle audits on the rise, organisations that can best align license agreements with actual database and option usage can reduce their financial risk and maximise the value of their Oracle investments. The goal is to “right-size” Oracle across the enterprise and gain control over the entire license management process – from accurate needs projections and licensing negotiations, to deployments and audit preparation. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • BPM Basics for Dummies
    This book helps you understand what BPM is really all about. We wrote it because BPM is so useful and so powerful — and because it is also very accessible. We wrote this book for you — the individual. You may be a business manager, or an Information Technology practitioner, or maybe an ambitious career individual who wants to know what BPM is all about and how to apply it.
    Learn more »
  • Print security and the mobile workforce
    Where, when, and how we work is changing. Whether your employees are working on the road without a dedicated workstation or from a home office, they need a safe way to print. Driving this shift is the accelerating adoption of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. But even with these devices, printing remains a key business function for virtually all employees, and many may already be using them to print. Read more.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments