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Facebook said it was working with the FBI to investigate the biggest hacking in its history. Credit: Composite Ad Age, iStock
The major hacking of Facebook, announced two weeks ago, affected 30 million people, not 50 million as originally planned.
But for about half of those whose accounts have been robbed – about 14 million people – hackers have accessed confidential information, such as the last 10 places this person has entered, their current city, and their last 15 searches announced the company Friday. For 15 million people, cyberthieves only accessed the name and contact details. The attackers did not collect any information from about 1 million people whose accounts were vulnerable.
A smaller slice of people has been more severely affected. About 400,000 people served as the entry point for hackers on the other 30 million on Facebook. For these 400,000 people, attackers could see what users saw when they were reviewing their own profiles. This included posts on their Facebook timelines and the names of the latest Facebook Messenger chats.
The attackers wrote computer code that explored the compromised pages and copied information, called "scratching". This could expose victims to further abuse of fraud if hackers still had their contact details and personal data. Facebook said that it would inform affected users of potential dangers and details of the violation.
The hacking, one of the worst in Facebook's history, comes at a time when the social network is desperately trying to regain the trust of its users.
Facebook did not disclose whether there was a specific group targeted by the hackers, the geographical location of the victims or a potential motive. Facebook said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating and asked that some details remain confidential.
Facebook also stated that no third-party application had been violated as part of this attack. Some were questioning whether hackers could access external applications using Facebook login information, but it turns out that this was not the case.
-Bloomberg News and Ad Age staff
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