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- Deep takes two as Bangladesh totter in reply to India's 376
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- Ashwin's 113 powers India to 376 in Bangladesh Test
- Biden opens home to 'Quad' leaders for farewell summit
- Sally Rooney returns with 30-something questions
- Wallabies sense 'massive' chance to upset All Blacks
- Taiwan questions two in probe into Hezbollah pagers
- Viral Korean Olympic shooter scores first acting role as assassin
- Farrell set for 'challenge' of downing Bordeaux in Top 14
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- Inter on a high ahead of Milan derby as Napoli face Juve test
- Bank of Japan leaves key interest rate unchanged
- Arnold quits after six years in charge of Australia
- Asian markets track Wall Street record to extend global rally
- Guirassy and Anton to return to Stuttgart with new side Dortmund
- Marseille bidding to continue 'almost perfect' Ligue 1 start
- Arnold quits as coach of Australia men's football team
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- Perez leading new-look Villarreal charge against leaders Barca
- Man City face Arsenal in Premier League title showdown, Postecoglou under pressure
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- World leaders to gather at UN as crises grow and conflicts rage
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- South Africa's Buhai grabs LPGA Queen City lead
- Japan inflation firms to 2.8% ahead of BoJ rate decision
- Russia's Kadyrov accuses Musk of 'remotely disabling' his Cybertruck
- Titan sub had to abort a dive days before fatal implosion: testimony
- Ohtani makes MLB history with first 50-homer, 50-steal season
- Ohtani eyes MLB history after surpassing 50 stolen bases, 49 homers
- Ohtani eyes MLB history after surpassing 50 stolen bases
- Barca downed by Monaco as Arsenal held in Champions League stalemate
- Head's 'good night at office' after century seals win over England
- Dubois seeks legitimacy with Joshua scalp
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- Last-gasp Gimenez strike sends Atletico past Leipzig
- Barca stumble at Monaco after early red card
- Raya heroics save Arsenal in Champions League opener at Atalanta
- Cathay Airbus engine fire linked to cleaning: EU regulator
- Guardians beat Twins to secure MLB playoff berth
- Jihadist attack in Mali capital killed more than 70: security sources
- Alonso hails 'efficient' Leverkusen after Feyenoord rout
- Head's hundred seals Australia win over England in 1st ODI
Hackers got user data from Meta with forged request
Facebook owner Meta gave user information to hackers who pretended to be law enforcement officials last year, a company source said Wednesday, highlighting the risks of a measure used in urgent cases.
Imposters were able to get details like physical addresses or phone numbers in response to falsified "emergency data requests," which can slip past privacy barriers, said the source who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Criminal hackers have been compromising email accounts or websites tied to police or government and claiming they can't wait for a judge's order for information because it's an "urgent matter of life and death," cyber expert Brian Krebs wrote Tuesday.
Bloomberg news agency, which originally reported Meta being targeted, also reported that Apple had provided customer data in response to forged data requests.
Apple and Meta did not officially confirm the incidents, but provided statements citing their policies in handling information demands.
When US law enforcement officials want data on a social media account's owner or an associated cell phone number, they must submit an official court-ordered warrant or subpoena, Krebs wrote.
But in urgent cases authorities can make an "emergency data request," which "largely bypasses any official review and does not require the requestor to supply any court-approved documents," he added.
Meta, in a statement, said the firm reviews every data request for "legal sufficiency" and uses "advanced systems and processes" to validate law enforcement requests and detect abuse.
"We block known compromised accounts from making requests and work with law enforcement to respond to incidents involving suspected fraudulent requests, as we have done in this case," the statement added.
Apple noted its guidelines, which say that in the case of an emergency application "a supervisor for the government or law enforcement agent who submitted the... request may be contacted and asked to confirm to Apple that the emergency request was legitimate."
Krebs noted that the lack of a unitary, national system for these type of requests is one of the key problems associated with them, as companies end up deciding how to deal with them.
"To make matters more complicated, there are tens of thousands of police jurisdictions around the world — including roughly 18,000 in the United States alone — and all it takes for hackers to succeed is illicit access to a single police email account," he wrote.
N.Fournier--BTB