Fears for bank accounts after hackers get access to 50m Facebook users
Data watchdog’s anger at delay
AT least 50million users of Facebook have had their accounts hacked by criminals.
The attack has put at risk personal data including home addresses, email accounts and even bank details.
The hackers took advantage of a security flaw to effectively take control of tens of millions of Facebook profiles.
It was not clear last night if any of those affected were Irish.
The social media giant found out about the attack on Tuesday but kept the information from the public until last night.
It has logged 50million victims out of their accounts, making them log back in again with their passwords. As a precautionary measure, another 40million users will be asked to do the same.
The hackers broke in using flaws in a video tool and the ‘view as’ feature, which allows customers to test out their profiles. It has now been disabled.
It is the latest worry for users of the site following the revelation that the personal information of 87million users was harvested by a data company that used it to help Donald Trump become president.
An American investigation then found that agents from Russia and elsewhere had been posting fake political adverts on Facebook since at least 2016.
Last night, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner expressed frustration over the Facebook delay in informing users and in providing information about the hack.
In a statement last night, it said: ‘The Data Protection Commission has received a preliminary notification from Facebook Ireland.
‘However, the notification lacks detail and the DPC is concerned at the fact that this breach was discovered on Tuesday and affects many millions of user accounts but Facebook is unable to clarify the nature of the breach and the risk for users at this point.
‘The DPC continues to press Facebook to clarify these matters further as a matter of urgency.’
Silkie Carlo, of British campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘This hack is of an unimaginable scale. Facebook is harvesting, selling and now losing highly sensitive information about the private lives of millions of people all around the world. It is a complete disgrace.
‘This year has become an omnishambles for Facebook, but it’s users who are paying the real price. We hope the information commissioner will take robust action, but more importantly that Facebook’s users seriously consider their use of the platform.’
The company’s shares fell more than 3% in New York last night, wiping more than $15billion off its value. Following the data breach, some users were sent a message, saying: ‘To protect your security, we may have recently logged you out of your Facebook account.
‘We don’t know yet if anyone’s Facebook information was accessed, but we wanted to let you know what we’re doing to protect your account. We’re continuing to investigate the situation and have informed law enforcement.’
A spokesman for the firm, which has two billion users, said it spotted the problem following a spike in suspicious activity on Tuesday and fixed the flaw that evening.
It realised that attackers were breaking into the website to grab users’ profile information. Many users reported that they had been
Company found out on Tuesday ‘Highly sensitive information’
forced to log back into their accounts. In a statement last night, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted the breach was serious.
The 34-year-old billionaire said: ‘The reality here is we face constant attack from people who want to take over accounts. We need to do more to prevent this from happening in the first place.’
Adam French of consumer group Which? said: ‘Facebook’s data breach will deeply concern users. It is critical that the company does all that it can to ensure affected people get clear information about what happened.
‘Anyone concerned they could be at risk should consider changing their password, and monitor bank and other online accounts.’