Facebook Is Breached, Putting 50 Million Users’ Data at Risk

I agree, OP, I never created one either. Why would anyone trust these tech geeks with things of a personal, human nature?

For those behind paywall.

[quote]SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook said on Friday that an attack on its computer network had exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million users.

[quote]The company said it discovered the breach this week, finding that attackers had exploited a feature in Facebook’s code that allowed them to take over user accounts. The company said it fixed the vulnerability and notified law enforcement officials.

[quote]“We’re taking it really seriously,” Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, said in a conference call with reporters. “We have a major security effort at the company that hardens all of our surfaces.” He added: “I’m glad we found this. But it definitely is an issue that this happened in the first place.”

[quote]More than 90 million Facebook users were forced to log out of their accounts early Friday, a common safety measure taken when accounts have been compromised.

[quote]Facebook said it did not know the origin or identity of the attackers, nor had it fully assessed the scope of the attack. The company said it was still in the beginning stages of its investigation.

[quote]Facebook said the attackers had exploited a bug in the site’s “view as” feature, which allows users to to view their own profiles as if they were someone else. The feature was built to give users move control over their privacy.

[quote]The company said that bug was compounded by one in Facebook’s video-uploading program, a software feature that was introduced last year. The flaw had allowed the attackers to steal so-called access tokens — digital keys that allow access to an account.

[quote]The attack was discovered as Facebook continues to contend with the aftermath of its role in a widespread Russian disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election and from the fallout of the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica scandal improperly harvesting the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users. The company also faces the prospect of federal regulation amid questions about whether it has grown too powerful.

CONT'D

[quote]One of the primary challenges for the company has been convincing its users that it can responsibly handle the incredible wealth of data it has access to. More than two billion people use Facebook every month; another two billion use WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned messaging app, and Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app.

[quote]“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in a statement regarding Cambridge Analytica this year.

[quote]Even before the disclosure on Friday, Facebook was caught up in multiple federal investigations related to its broader data-sharing and privacy practices. The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an inquiry into the company’s statements about the Cambridge Analytica episode.

[quote]Facebook insists it has instituted strict data-sharing policies with third parties, and has scaled back the amount of data it agrees to share with developers in the future. The company suspended access to more than 400 third-party apps after an audit of the thousands of outside apps connected to Facebook.

Yeah, I avoided Facebook too. No account and never will.

And have they notified the 50 millions users who were attacked?

No?

Of course not, why would they do something sensible like that? Better to wait until Friday afternoon and dump it in the news trash.

Yeah the 50 million fake accounts were breached. It's like Yahoo which never deletes an email. When they got breached, most of those were over 20 years old and hadn't been used since then.

Matthew Yglesias:

Today, Facebook announced a data breach impacting 50 million accounts.

Yesterday their top lobbyist was on the Hill “in a personal capacity” to lobby for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Has anyone here commented on the fact that they never started a Facebook account like their information isn't all over the internet anyway?

R9 has apparently been "breached" a few too many times.

Relax, darling, you know that social media is your friend.

Someone's response to my saying in a post that I don't have or want a Facebook page, right here on DL circa 2010:

If you aren't on Facebook you are a NOBODY who will be FORGOTTEN

Face plant

This is all a MISDIRECT tactic. Facebook is 100% permanently "breached data". They use it and sell it to plenty of entities and there is one of those direct tielines to home security or CIA who can inspect whatever they wish.

There is no misdirect, of course Homeland Security and the CIA can look at whatever they wish, they're Homeland Security and the CIA.

“We’re taking it really seriously."

Is that the new "Thoughts and Prayers"?

Jesus Wept! Zuckerberg is one of the richest people on the planet - heading up one of the biggest companies there is - and his statements always sound like he has the vocabulary of a high schooler (which I suppose is better than trump who sounds even younger!)

‘We’re taking it really seriously...’ ya think? Why do his messages and public persona always seem so utterly simplistic and dumbed down? Is it cos that’s Facebook’s bade is now primarily dumb rubes who will relate to that level of speech and just go ‘oh ok’ and keep giving Facebook their data?

Zuckerberg is - from everything we know about his past - a calculating - very smart! - high functioning psychopath. Yet he constantly pulls this ‘aw shucks...’ act as if he’s some geek teenager.

Nope. Not buying it.

Anybody who believed that any data they put on FB (or any other SM site) was anything other than wide open to mid-level hackers (and of course the NSA and the CIA and the FSB and the Chinese) was criminally naive.

As long as you don't post anything you're afraid of the whole world seeing, SM are perfectly fine to use.

Average FB user:

"Der, what does breached mean? What does user data mean? What does at risk mean? Lemme log into my FB account to ask my friends!"

[quote]Someone's response to my saying in a post that I don't have or want a Facebook page, right here on DL circa 2010: If you aren't on Facebook you are a NOBODY who will be FORGOTTEN.

I remember those days when everyone thought like this, that there was something incredibly wrong with you if you didn't have a FB account. Me, I didn't give a shit. I was getting sick and tired of FB resetting my privacy settings again and again and again, so I quit.

They did notify us breached users sort of - we woke up to our accounts logged out and our passwords not working.

Fuck Zuckerberg!

So glad I deleted my account a few months ago.

I use the Facebook app and wasn’t forced to log in today.

They stole data? The data that is freely available to people that look at your facebook profile?

I deleted my FB account after the last big reveal of data hacking. Smartest thing I ever did short of not creating an account in the first place.