Hacker releases 100,000 Facebook log-in credentials

IDG News Service - A hacker who claims to act in defense of Israel has released 100,000 credentials of allegedly Arab users of Facebook in an ongoing row between Israeli and Arab hackers.

The hacker, who goes by the name Hannibal, posted the credentials in four parts on Pastebin on Saturday as well as making the details available on 14 file-sharing sites.

In a note introducing the data, the hacker claimed to have 30 million email account details, 10 million bank accounts and four million credit card accounts belonging to "Arabs from all over the world."

Hannibal appeared to propose a truce, as activity from hackers targeting Israel appears to have subsided in recent days, but the hacker vowed to come to Israel's defense if needed: "If they appear again, I again come to save Israel. Trust me. I'll always be around."

Emails sent to an address provided by Hannibal in the Pastebin data were rejected by the hosting provider.

Since Jan. 13, Hannibal has released several batches of email and Facebook log-in details. Facebook officials said last week of one of the releases that less than a third of the credentials were valid, and half were not associated with Facebook accounts.

"This does not represent a hack of Facebook or anyone's Facebook profiles," according to a statement.

Facebook said it validates every single log-in attempt to the site, whether the password is right or not, in order to scan for malicious activity.

Earlier this month, a hacker going by the name "oxOmar" released tens of thousands of credit card numbers of Israeli citizens. Israel's Banking Supervision Department later said that only 15,000 of the numbers were active.

Shortly after that release, someone going by the name Omer Cohen, or "0xOmer" on Twitter, released 400 credit card numbers and expiration dates belonging to Saudi Arabian cardholders. Omer Cohen did not publish the CVC, the three-digit code on the back of the cards, however, needed to conduct online purchases.

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