Cybercrime is on the rise, and it turns out that Meta apps are particularly susceptible to it. TechShielder recently conducted some research that revealed that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are among the most vulnerable apps for various cyber attacks. This research was conducted by analyzing monthly search volume, and these three apps formed the top three in the search rankings with all things having been considered and taken into account.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that search volume for the keywords “Facebook hacked” hovered at around 550,000. Following at a distant second was Instagram with just under 250,000, or 246,000 to be precise. WhatsApp fared only marginally better, with the words “WhatsApp hacked” being search around 135,000 times.
What’s even more concerning is that even Meta’s least vulnerable app had nearly triple the search volume than Snapchat which came in fourth with 49,500. In fifth place was the live streaming app Twitch with just 27,100, so this is clearly a problem that is impacting Meta disproportionately more than any other major platform.
To put it another way, it seems that the average Facebook user is about 10 times more likely to get hacked than the average Snapchat user. In spite of the fact that this is the case, Facebook has a far larger number of users which would obviously make the number of hacked accounts much higher.
This research highlighted the risks that third party data sharing posed to cybersecurity because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up giving malicious actors more sources of data to break into. Facebook has the highest number of access points of all, which is why it has ten times the number of hacked accounts despite having four to five times Snapchat’s user base. That suggests that a Facebook user is at least twice as likely to get hacked than a Snapchat user.
Another thing that this research shed some light on was the frequency of cyber attacks by city. London turned out to be a hotspot for cyber attacks, with a score of 4,260 being assigned. This means that users are far more likely to get hacked if they live in London than might have been the case otherwise.
Coming in second was Mexico City, although its score of 2,540 was well short of London’s. London clearly has a very serious cybercrime problem, and unless necessary steps are taken it seems unlikely that this problem would go away anytime soon.
Paris was the third worst place for cybercrime with a score of 2,190, followed by Bogota with a score of 2,060. Interestingly, no city apart from London crossed 3,000 let alone 4,000, which just goes to show that the cybercrime problem in London is reaching unforeseen heights.
We will have to wait and see if anything is done about the rising ride of cybercrime all around the world. Companies like Meta are making matters worse due to their profiteering, and it doesn’t seem like they will change their ways anytime soon. Rather, they are doubling down on their third party data sharing which is increasing cyberattack volume.
Read next: 8 Out of 10 Websites Will Leak Your Search Data to Google According to This Study
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that search volume for the keywords “Facebook hacked” hovered at around 550,000. Following at a distant second was Instagram with just under 250,000, or 246,000 to be precise. WhatsApp fared only marginally better, with the words “WhatsApp hacked” being search around 135,000 times.
What’s even more concerning is that even Meta’s least vulnerable app had nearly triple the search volume than Snapchat which came in fourth with 49,500. In fifth place was the live streaming app Twitch with just 27,100, so this is clearly a problem that is impacting Meta disproportionately more than any other major platform.
To put it another way, it seems that the average Facebook user is about 10 times more likely to get hacked than the average Snapchat user. In spite of the fact that this is the case, Facebook has a far larger number of users which would obviously make the number of hacked accounts much higher.
This research highlighted the risks that third party data sharing posed to cybersecurity because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up giving malicious actors more sources of data to break into. Facebook has the highest number of access points of all, which is why it has ten times the number of hacked accounts despite having four to five times Snapchat’s user base. That suggests that a Facebook user is at least twice as likely to get hacked than a Snapchat user.
Another thing that this research shed some light on was the frequency of cyber attacks by city. London turned out to be a hotspot for cyber attacks, with a score of 4,260 being assigned. This means that users are far more likely to get hacked if they live in London than might have been the case otherwise.
Coming in second was Mexico City, although its score of 2,540 was well short of London’s. London clearly has a very serious cybercrime problem, and unless necessary steps are taken it seems unlikely that this problem would go away anytime soon.
Paris was the third worst place for cybercrime with a score of 2,190, followed by Bogota with a score of 2,060. Interestingly, no city apart from London crossed 3,000 let alone 4,000, which just goes to show that the cybercrime problem in London is reaching unforeseen heights.
We will have to wait and see if anything is done about the rising ride of cybercrime all around the world. Companies like Meta are making matters worse due to their profiteering, and it doesn’t seem like they will change their ways anytime soon. Rather, they are doubling down on their third party data sharing which is increasing cyberattack volume.
