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TagsBY GINA G. SCALA
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
By now, more than 900 million Facebook users know the social media site was hacked Thursday night and that the hacking group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for effectively shutting the site down for nearly three hours.
Taking to Twitter to express their displeasure, Facebook users from the United States to Singapore reported being unable to log onto the website for around three hours from approximately 8 to 11 p.m., EST, according to the Daily Mail.
Also Thursday, Anonymous tweeted looks “like Facebook is having packet problems,” CBS DC reported. The group later added, “Oh yeah … RIP Facebook a new sound of Tango down (expletive).”
The hacking comes just hours after the social media’s stock closed five percent higher Thursday, ending the day at $29.60, according to CNN Money. Investors finally saw a reason to bid up shares of Facebook after the stock hit new lows in morning trading. Despite the five percent increase, Facebook shares are still down about 22 percent from the IPO price.
The company's market value now stands about $60 billion, still a very pricey 60 times earnings. Bloomberg Business News Wire cut Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg from the list of the world's 40 richest people. His Facebook holdings have fallen in value from $19.3 billion at the end of its first day of trading, to $13.6 billion as of Thursday, CNN Money reported.
In the meantime, Anonymous is also on the move. The Canadian Press Thursday reported the group plans to attempt a disruption of next month's Grand Prix in Montreal by posting the personal information of more than 100 people who bought tickets to the Formula One car race.
According to Canadian Press reports, this threat is only the latest in a series of web attacks initially targeting government-related websites under Operation Quebec; in response to a new law setting limits on protests. At first, people managed to disable more than a dozen websites tied to the Quebec government, including the sites of the Education Department, the Quebec Liberal Party and the Montreal police force.
