The big-time social media company Meta is said to have sent several employees into disciplinary actions and fired a dozen more for allegedly compromising and hijacking user accounts. Based on reports, these employees have taken over numerous user accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Moreover, the company also fired some of the waived employees that were part of Meta’s contractors who worked as security guards. These guards allegedly help users gain access to accounts after they are locked out or forget their passwords.
The violation is that the guards helped these users to recover their accounts using a provided access to an internal tool exclusive for Meta employees.
This system is called Online Operations, which is given to most platform users. Hence, this system is used by Meta employees to charge users a hefty amount so that they can reset their accounts.
According to a user, a user with problems with their accounts could quickly fix an issue if they have a connection to someone working inside the company.
The Meta employees used the company’s recovery process numerous times, reaching a level it is not supposed to be.
According to investigations, Meta’s automated account recovery process has an alternative if it is now working. Unfortunately, the process is only available to its employees, business partners, and public figures.
A couple of years ago, the process was used by its personnel a little over 50,000 times, which is significantly higher than in 2017, which only used 22,000 instances.
Hence, it is highly plausible that the tool was available from an outside source or the black markets that could offer the service to users who lost their accounts.
In one scenario, a former security contractor assisted an unnamed third-party to hijack several Instagram accounts. The contractor claimed that he was deceived into filing the recovery tool to reset the affected accounts.
As of now, Meta has reiterated that offering or purchasing their account recovery service tool from third parties and unauthorised individuals is a clear violation of their terms of service.
