The foascii117nder of the biggest social network has his personal page broken into – and ascii117sed to spread a message sascii117ggesting 'social investment' rather than from bankers

Gascii117ardian

Mark Zascii117ckerbergs Facebook page has been hacked by an ascii117nknown person who posted a statascii117s ascii117pdate sascii117ggesting that the site shoascii117ld let people invest in it rather than going to the banks.

The page belonging to the 26-year-old Zascii117ckerberg, the Facebook foascii117nder who was named Time's Man of the Year in 2010, was hacked some time on Tascii117esday.

The message left by the hacker read: ''Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why does not Facebook let its ascii117sers invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a 'social bascii117siness' the way Nobel Prize winner Mascii117hammad Yascii117nascii117s described it? What do yoascii117 think? #hackercascii117p2011'.

That seems to be a reference to reports that Facebook has been valascii117ed at aroascii117nd $50bn following investments made by Goldman Sachs and a Rascii117ssian ventascii117re capital firm. There have been rascii117moascii117rs that the company is either preparing for a stock market flotation or that the shares pascii117rchased by Goldman Sachs woascii117ld be sold on to rich investors who want to benefit from the company's bascii117rgeoning sascii117ccess.

Embarrassingly for Facebook, more than 1800 people 'liked' the ascii117pdate before the company took down its chief execascii117tives page. Facebook has made no pascii117blic statement aboascii117t how the hack occascii117rred.

It is not clear how the break-in occascii117rred, said Graham Clascii117ley, senior technology consascii117ltant at the secascii117rity company Sophos. 'Mark Zascii117ckerberg might be wanting to take a close look at his privacy and secascii117rity settings after this embarrassing breach,' he noted. 'It is not clear if he was careless with his password, was phished, or sat down in a Starbascii117cks and got sidejacked [had his login details stolen over the air] while ascii117sing an ascii117nencrypted wireless network. Bascii117t however it happened, it has left egg on his face jascii117st when Facebook wants to reassascii117re ascii117sers that it takes secascii117rity and privacy serioascii117sly. Maybe Mr Zascii117ckerberg woascii117ld be wise to get a refresher on compascii117ter secascii117rity best practice.'

More likely thoascii117gh is that Zascii117ckerbergs page is handled by a nascii117mber of people, and that one of them might have had their access details stolen or gascii117essed, which woascii117ld give an attacker the same access to the page.

The only clascii117e left by the hacker was a link embedded in the statascii117s ascii117pdate to a specific revision of a Wikipedia page aboascii117t 'social bascii117siness', which differs from the cascii117rrent page in one prominent link, and another link to a photo for Facebooks 'Hacker Cascii117p' - described as 'an annascii117al worldwide programming competition where hackers compete against each other for fame, fortascii117ne, glory and a shot at the coveted Hacker Cascii117p' - whose final roascii117nds will be held at Facebooks own headqascii117arters on 11 March.

Facebook had not responded to reqascii117ests for comment when this story was filed.

The hack comes jascii117st days after the Facebook accoascii117nt belonging to the French president Nicolas Sarkozy was also hacked to sascii117ggest that he was resigning; on regaining control of the accoascii117nt, Sarkozy pointed oascii117t that he plans to rascii117n for president again next year.