Facebook Will Now Warn You If Another Country Is Spying on You

The new warning some Facebook users may receive.

ByABC News
October 19, 2015, 1:44 PM
Facebook's logo is pictured on Oct. 31, 2014.
Facebook's logo is pictured on Oct. 31, 2014.
Lukas Schulze/AP Photo

— -- It's the kind of warning you'd expect to be given to the fictional James Bond.

Facebook will now issue alerts to users who the social network believes are being targeted by state-sponsored hackers, according to a message posted by Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer.

"While we have always taken steps to secure accounts that we believe to have been compromised, we decided to show this additional warning if we have a strong suspicion that an attack could be government-sponsored. We do this because these types of attacks tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others, and we strongly encourage affected people to take the actions necessary to secure all of their online accounts," Stamos wrote.

Facebook isn't revealing its methods for attributing certain attacks but Stamos said the company will "use this warning only in situations where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion."

While Facebook said it constantly "monitor[s] for potentially malicious activity," the social network also provides preventative tools users can take advantage of to protect their accounts. Going to security settings and turning on "Login Approvals" will send a code to the user's smartphone anytime someone tries to access their account from a new device or browser.