Hackers take down Pfizer Facebook page

Hackers compromised this week the Facebook page of pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, supposedly defacing it with controversial slogans. Pfizer mentioned the incident only briefly in an entry on its Facebook page, after it was taken offline and eventually restored. "As you might have noticed, our Page was compromised last night. We have been working with Facebook to understand what happened so we can guard against it in the future," Pfizer said. It thanked the public for their patience while its page has been down, "and we are pleased to be sharing our news with you once more." While Pfizer did not give added details, computer security firm Sophos said that a group claiming to be the Script Kiddies "urged" that Pfizer should be stopped because "they're corrupt and the damage they create is senseless". Sophos Asia Pacific technology head Paul Ducklin said it was likely the perpetrator "did nothing more than guess the password of someone at Pfizer's PR company who had access to the page." "(Environments) such as Twitter and Facebook actually need consistent and continuous tending. With just 140 characters in each Tweet, there isn't much room for dialogue in the form of a traditional debate. Quantity and fast reaction times are much more useful characteristics in the world of social networking than quality and thoughtful consideration," he noted. Ducklin also said security blunders by PR companies or contractors can quickly become the stuff of legend. He cited a case in 2009, when McAfee was deeply embarrassed by a follow-up email sent to each attendee of its Strategic Security Summit. "This erroneously included a spreadsheet with the personal details of all 1500 registrants," he noted. In 2010, he cited an incident where IBM "managed to hand out marketing material at a security conference on USB keys which were infected with not one, but two, items of malware." You need to ensure that your PR company follows security guidelines which are at least as strong as yours, he pointed out. — TJD, GMA News