In a conference call last night, Facebook revealed that it suffered a serious data breach and account login information of 50 million users was hacked and stolen.
Among the affected Facebook users, both Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, had their account information in the social network hack.
Reuters
In this unprecedented attack, the largest security hack suffered by Facebook in its history, hackers are believed to have exploited a trio of security flaws to steal "access tokens," a digital key that allows returning Facebook users to log easily back into the social network, without repeated username and login prompts.
In a long post outlining the data breach and its ramifications, Facebook VP of Product Management, Guy Rosen confirmed that unknown "attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook's code".
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg called the attack "a serious issue" in a call with reporters last night. "We don't know if any (Facebook) accounts were actually misused," he added.
Reuters
Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook engineers discovered the data hack on Tuesday (Sept 25) and patched the vulnerability, which may have affected as many as 50 million Facebook users, on Thursday night.
Facebook said it's still investigating the extent of the security breach and it's temporarily?disabling thee "view as" feature, a privacy tool that allows Facebook users to see how their personal profiles appear to other people on Facebook and beyond.
Hackers not only stole the ability to access 50 million users' Facebook accounts, but because of the nature of the Facebook hack -- which involved stealing digital tokens or login credentials of a Facebook user -- they also can affect other websites and services where the affected Facebook account was used to register or login.
Reuters
This potentially exposes some of the biggest apps and services like Tinder, Airbnb, Spotify and even Instagram,?which is owned by Facebook, for the same hackers to exploit and effectively misuse.
It's advisable to change your Facebook account's password, as a security measure, whether your account was or wasn't affected by this security hack. Reacting to this latest Facebook setback, shares of the company fell 2.6% on Friday across US stock markets, according to Reuters.
This is just a latest in a series of blows to Facebook's reputation, as the social giant -- which has over 2.2 billion active users around the world -- made headlines in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal as details of 87 million users was leaked. It led to a review of the the company’s privacy practices across the world, government investigations, and “#deleteFacebook” social movement among consumers, not to mention public apology from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.