Interpol Chief's Identity Spoofed On Facebook

An anonymous reader writes "Ronald Noble, Interpol's Secretary General, has revealed that cybercriminals have opened two fake Facebook accounts using his name and used them to gather sensitive information. 'One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red,' Noble said. 'This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the Interpol General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.'"

Context

[cappp]

The context of the statement

In short, INTERPOL is ideally positioned to represent law enforcement interests in developing global information security standards, as well as to assist in the implementation of such standards across its membership, including by developing specific standards for the police community.

But as you all know, even with the best standards in place, security incidents can always happen.

Just recently INTERPOL’s Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity as INTERPOL’s Secretary General. One of the impersonators was using this profile to try to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red. This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the INTERPOL General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.

This is why we constantly need to share our experience. INTERPOL’s Information Security Incident Response Team is a member of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams –– or FIRST ––, which I assume most of you know. Being a member of the FIRST enables INTERPOL to learn from the experience of other members and to share our own experiences for the benefit of others. But again, it is also a way to draw bridges between the police community and information security professionals from the private and public sectors worldwide.

Also note that the actual statement says the impersonator was trying to gather sensative data, not quite the success as implied in the summary. The whole speech is available as a pdf here [interpol.int].

I don't know about the rest of you but one of the original reasons I grabbed a Facebook account was to prevent just that kind of thing happening - the same reason I've registered the most obvious forms of my name in as many social networking and emailing services as possible - if I hold the accounts then I possess some control over other people's ability to misrepresent themselves as me.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone working in law enforcement, you have no idea...

Re:I don't get it

[AVryhof]

I wouldn't be surprised. While at drill this weekend, I learned that one of our people got activated, and her CO told her in a Facebook message.

These types of things, as well as poor computer security practices in security agencies bother me.