Facebook engineering team has clarified that it has discovered a security issue that affected almost 50 million accounts. It also mentioned that the investigation is still in its early stages but said that it’s clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As” a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This said to have allowed the attackers to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook, so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app. Facebook confirmed that it has fixed the vulnerability and informed law enforcement. It also reset the access tokens of the almost 50 million accounts that were affected. The company is also taking steps to reset access tokens for another 40 million accounts that have been subject to a “View As” look-up in the last year. This is why around 90 million users have to log in again into the Facebook. Once the user logs back in, he will be notified explaining what actually happened. Facebook also announced that it is ...
Friday 28 September 2018
Facebook security breach allowed hackers to control 50 million accounts
Facebook engineering team has clarified that it has discovered a security issue that affected almost 50 million accounts. It also mentioned that the investigation is still in its early stages but said that it’s clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As” a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This said to have allowed the attackers to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook, so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app. Facebook confirmed that it has fixed the vulnerability and informed law enforcement. It also reset the access tokens of the almost 50 million accounts that were affected. The company is also taking steps to reset access tokens for another 40 million accounts that have been subject to a “View As” look-up in the last year. This is why around 90 million users have to log in again into the Facebook. Once the user logs back in, he will be notified explaining what actually happened. Facebook also announced that it is ...
