Facebook's recommendation system appeared to amplify the issue. After the researchers joined video game cheat groups, they found that Facebook began suggesting they join groups advertising more serious cybercriminal activity.
“Facebook's algorithm that's designed to connect users with similar hobbies is also picking up on keywords between these different types of criminal groups,” said Craig Williams, a director for Talos.
“Unfortunately, instead of connecting people with positive hobbies, it's connecting people with criminal means,” and promoting hacking tools to the general public, he said.
“Facebook has sequentially dealt with each threat one by one, and they really haven't gotten to the level yet either in terms of staffing or strategy of thinking holistically about their platform and how to go at fraudsters or criminal groups that are repeating the same activity time and time again,” Watts said.