A teenager has managed to infiltrate a North Korea-based social network that appears to be a Facebook clone by simply using the most generic password ever: "password."
The mysterious Facebook doppelganger site surfaced online on Friday, May 27, as reported by publication Motherboard.
A few hours later, the publication disclosed that within a short span of making its presence known, the clone Facebook site's security had been breached. The site is currently offline.
"On Friday, we first reported on a mysterious Facebook clone hosted in North Korea. A mere few hours later, someone had already hacked the site," noted the publication.
An 18-year-old Scottish lad named Andrew McKean apparently got admin privileges to the site by simply guessing the login details.
McKean disclosed that the admin details of the site were left on the default mode by the site owner. This basically translates to the fact that all the teen had to do was key in the demo "admin" as the user name and "password" as the password to hack the Facebook clone. Thus the hack "was easy enough" for the teen.
Apparently, the Facebook clone site was created by using the software suite phpDolphin, which costs $43 and enables any individual to create a social networking platform. The dashboard for the site deploys the generic username "admin" and pin "password" by default. Stupidly enough, the creator of the North Korean Facebook clone site forgot to change the defaults.
This enabled McKean to hack into the clone site and take control. The teen could then alter the site's name, see personal data, manage the adverts and censor words. He could also see the name given to the site: Best Korea's Social Network.
The teenager revealed that he did not intend to do anything with the site after he hacked into it.
It is not known what the purpose is behind the Facebook clone site from North Korea.
Photo: Davide Restivo | Flickr
