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Facebook 50 million user accounts are threatened after hackers have exploited a security breach on the site.
The company said Friday in a blog that it had discovered the bug earlier in the week. The bug is part of the "show as" feature of the site that allows a user to view his profile as someone else's. Facebook has disabled the "Show as" feature while it is investigating the bug.
The bug allowed hackers to obtain account access tokens, which are used to keep users logged in when they enter their username and password. Stolen tokens can allow hackers to access accounts.
Facebook said it reset the access tokens of all affected users, as well as 40 million additional accounts per caution. This means that some 90 million users will have been disconnected from their account, either on their phone or computer.
Facebook also said that users will be notified of the security incident once they reconnect.
"We still have to figure out if these accounts were misused or information was accessed," said Guy Rosen, vice president of product management at Facebook. "We do not know who is behind these attacks or where they are based."
Rosen said Facebook spotted the attack because hackers were automating their large-scale attack.
Managing Director Mark Zuckerberg said in a press call that the company did not know if bad accounts had been accessed.
Facebook has contacted the forces of order, according to the blog article. Since users in Europe are also affected, the company has informed the data protection authorities in Ireland, where the company's European headquarters are located.
"If we find other accounts affected, we will immediately reset their access tokens," Rosen said. "It's a breach of trust and we take it very seriously."
The social network has 2.2 billion users per month in the second quarter.
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