Facebook and Twitter tell Ukrainian users to protect themselves against hacking

Social media platforms Facebook and Twitter have warned Ukrainian users they may be vulnerable to hacking, after Ukraine experienced a series of cyberattacks in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

Facebook owner Meta set a special operations centre to monitor the situation in Ukraine, after introducing new features that allows Ukrainian users to lock their profiles, Meta’s director of threat disruption, David Agranovich said in a series of tweets yesterday evening.

The Meta cybersecurity expert said the threat monitoring unit is made up various experts who will respond to real-time developments, as he explained the new security features will allow users to lock their profiles with just one click.

In a series of tweets in English, Ukrainian and Russian, Twitter’s safety unit also said users in “conflict zones and high-risk areas” should take measures to boost the security of their profiles, as the tech company signalled users may be safer deleting their accounts altogether.

The warnings come after the Ukrainian government said it had been hit by series of cyberattacks, which the country blamed on Russia. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks brought down websites owned by several Ukrainian banks and governmental bodies.

Both Facebook and Twitter have been used widely by Ukrainian activists and researchers to distribute information on the current crisis. The measures come as social media platforms face criticism for allowing themselves to be vehicles for misinformation.