Recently news broke about an intrusion that happened back in October last year when criminals were able to break into the LiveRamp Facebook Marketing Agency. This is especially dangerous as the criminals can access sensitive information including payment data.
Apparently the criminals have done this intentionally and may have even used it to launch scams by taking advantage of the LiveRamp management accounts.
LiveRamp Facebook Marketing Agency Has Been Infiltrated in October: Company Accounts and Data Used for Internet Scams
News broke about a successful infiltration attempt into LiveRamp which is a big Facebook Marketing agency that operates multiple campaigns and has partner relationships with many businesses. According to the available information the criminals were able to hijack the personal credentials of an employee in October 2019. This is particularly dangerous as this has allowed the hackers to access the company systems and specifically the advertising options.
The company announced that the damage has been contained and has not disclosed how many of its customers have been affected. Facebook also declined to comment on the case. They did confirm in November that an account of a Business Manager has been hijacked however they did not state that this was LiveRamp. The marketing agency has worked with the social network in order to revoke unauthorized access and to restore the normal functionality.
The LiveRamp agency hackers have used the access to run a series of malware ads which are hosted on the customer accounts. The main intent is to trick the visitors into buying fake products thus generating income for the criminals while covering up the scam. The LiveRamp agency is one of the largest companies that take care of business data of large enterprises including Google, MasterCard, Snapchat, Uber, Equifax and Spotify. Back in 2016 the company started integration with the Offline Conversations API used by Facebook which allows advertisers access to analytics data — the retrieved information will show the link between shown ads and what is actually bought from the platform.
In addition LiveRamp is also part of the Facebook for Business section which allows advertisers to give the company access to their analytics data — in return they will be able to gain a deeper understanding of their offline data and further insight into their launched ad campaigns.
Martin Beltov
Martin graduated with a degree in Publishing from Sofia University. As a cyber security enthusiast he enjoys writing about the latest threats and mechanisms of intrusion.
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