The work develloped by LASIGE researchers Tiago Guerreiro, Luís Carriço and Diogo Marques, in collaboration with researchers from the University of British Columbia, about the intrusions of Facebook accounts by nearby people, received high media attention. The research was accepted for publication in the conference of human factors in computer systems, ACM CHI, the most relevant in the area of human-machine interaction, worldwide.

Researchers have shown that attacks on accounts in this social network are common and varied. Common examples are matches (eg “facejacking”, “frape”) but extend to other motivations with more serious consequences.

Webpage of the study: https://bestchai.github.io/social-insider-study/
Full article: http://www.di.ciencias.ulisboa.pt/~tjvg/inconspicuous/social-insider-chi17.pdf

Here are some examples of the press attention:

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4137650/Study-finds-1-5-adults-access-Facebook.html
• http://www.irishnews.com/magazine/2017/01/19/news/turns-out-1-in-5-of-us-has-secretly-accessed-our-friends-facebook-accounts-894551/
• http://vancouversun.com/technology/internet/worried-about-hackers-look-to-your-facebook-friends-ubc-study-says
• http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2017/01/19/1-in-5-facebook-users-have-snooped-on-a-friends-account-ubc.html
• http://newswise.com/articles/one-in-five-adults-secretly-access-their-friends-facebook-accounts