Facebook founder’s fan page hacked

SAN FRANCISCO - The fan page of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been hacked by a mystery invader who posted a message decrying the company’s attempts to cash in on its hugely successful site.

Facebook declined to comment on the embarrassing security snafu, but did take down the compromised page.

“Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way?” said the message, posted just days after Facebook confirmed that it had raised $1.5 billion from global investors at a valuation of around $50 billion.

“Why not transform Facebook into a ’social business’ the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it?” the message continued, referring to the founder of the Grameen Bank which has transformed millions of lives by extending micro-loans to poor people.

Zuckerberg’s fan page has more than three million followers and is probably managed by media assistants to the social networking magnate, according to cyber-security experts.

The hackers may have stolen control of the page by guessing the password, sniffing it out over unsecured wireless networks, tricking Zuckerberg or the account manager into revealing it, or even surreptitiously gaining control of their computer.

“We don’t know how the hack was perpetrated,” said Paul Ducklin, head of technology at internet security firm Sophos. “Whatever happened in this case, it raises one more tough question: do you still trust Facebook with your online persona?”