Cyber-criminals steal identity of one of the world's top security chiefs using Facebook

The head of Interpol has warned that cyber-crime is the 'most dangerous criminal threat we will ever face' after fraudsters stole his identity on Facebook.

Security chief Ronald K. Noble revealed that two fake accounts were created in his name and used to find the details of highly-dangerous criminals.

The embarrassing security breach saw one of the impersonators used the false profile to obtain information on fugitives convicted of serious crimes including rape and murder.

Victim: The head of Interpol Ronald K. Noble has warned about the threats of cyber-crime after his identity was stolen on Facebook

The police chief has now warned that there could be devastating consequences of a terrorist cyber attack as he addressed officials at the first Interpol Information Security Conference in Hong Kong.

He said: ' Just recently Interpol's Information Security Incident Response Team discovered two Facebook profiles attempting to assume my identity as Interpol's secretary general.

'One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red.

'Cyber-crime is emerging as a very concrete threat. Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, it may in fact be one of the most dangerous criminal threats we will ever face.'

As the world's leading cross-border police agency Interpol, is responsible for working with international police forces.
But the details were stolen during Operation Infra Red in which senior investigators from 29 countries targeted criminals on the run from crimes including murder, paedophilia, drug trafficking and money laundering. It led to more than 130 arrests

It is believed the cyber-criminals created Facebook profiles claiming to be Mr Noble. From there they gathered sensitive information about the suspects.

Mr Noble spoke publicly about the scam for the fist time to hundreds of top security chiefs from 56 countries who were gathered at the conference last Friday.

He warned that terrorist could use methods similar to cyber-criminals who hack into victims' to steal financial details.

Mr Noble added: 'Just imagine the dramatic consequences of an attack, let's say, on a country's electricity grid or banking system," he said.

'We have been lucky so far that terrorists did not -- at least successfully or at least of which we are aware - launch cyber-attacks.
'One may wonder if this is a matter of style. Terrorists may prefer the mass media coverage of destroyed commuter trains, buildings brought down, to the anonymous collapse of the banking system. But until when?'

A recent study found that almost two thirds of all adult web users globally have fallen victim to some sort of cyber-crime from spam email scams to having their credit card details stolen.

China had the most cyber-crime victims, at 83 percent of web users, followed by India and Brazil, at 76 percent each, and then the US, at 73 percent, according to the 2011Norton Cyber-crime Report: The Human Impact.

The study of more 7,000 Internet users, also found that 80 percent of people believed the perpetrators would never be brought to justice. Fewer than half ever bother to report the crime to police.

Stacey Wu from internet security firm Symantec said: 'Identity and personal information theft is a big problem. It is no longer just high school kids in their bedrooms sending out malicious emails. It's organised criminals.'