Social media platform Facebook has taken action against two Bangladeshi hacker groups who mainly targeted the accounts of social activists, journalists, and religious minorities including migrants.

Facebook Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher and Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager Mike Dvilyanski made the disclosure through a joint statement on the company's website on Thursday. 

The Bangladeshis hacker groups are – Crime Research and Analysis Foundation (CRAF) and Don’s Team also known as Defence of Nations.

The company also took action against another hacking group, goes by the name APT32, in Vietnam.

Facebook removed the hackers’ ability to use their infrastructure to abuse the platform, distribute malware and hack people’s accounts across the internet.

The statement said the hackers appeared to be operating across a number of internet services.

Don’s Team and CRAF from Bangladesh focused on compromising accounts across platforms and coordinating reporting to get targeted accounts and pages removed from Facebook, whereas the operation from Vietnam focused primarily on spreading malware to its targets, Facebook said.

Vietnam's APT32 targeted Vietnamese human rights activists locally and abroad, various foreign governments including those in Laos and Cambodia, non-governmental organizations, news agencies and a number of businesses with malware.

BDST: 1425 HRS, DEC 11, 2020
AP