Logged out of Facebook? Don't change your password in a panic
Here's everything you need to know to ensure complete security.
By ET Online | Updated:
Did Facebook log you out? You could be one of the 50 million users who was exposed to the massive security breach by unknown hackers on Friday.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that significant number of the accounts affected could be from India. The tech company has 2 billion global users, and around 270 million users in India alone.
Here's everything you need to know to ensure complete security:
Facebook Data Breach Making Headlines, Here's How Other Scandals Began
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The Facebook leak was traced back to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge university. Here is the root of other such worldwide breaches.
(Image: Twitter/@AleksandrBKogan)
The Facebook leak was traced back to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge university. Here is the root of other such worldwide breaches.
(Image: Twitter/@AleksandrBKogan)
In 2012, companies like Visa Inc licensee, J C Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA were attacked by hackers, resulting in a collective loss of up to $300 million. A Russian and Ukrainian gang hacked into the records for over seven years, breaching 8,00,000 bank accounts and stealing more than 160 million credit and debit card numbers. While his colleagues did the hacking, 32-year-old Russian Roman Kotov was charged with mining the data.
In 2012, companies like Visa Inc licensee, J C Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA were attacked by hackers, resulting in a collective loss of up to $300 million. A Russi..
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While eBay’s database was hacked earlier in 2014, the news came out only in May that year. The online auction house went into damage control. Its then CEO John Donahue asked 145 million users to change their passwords, but said that financial information was stored separately and hence, remained safe. One mind boggling detail is that the unknown hackers had access to eBay’s accounts for 229 days.
While eBay’s database was hacked earlier in 2014, the news came out only in May that year. The online auction house went into damage control. Its then CEO John Donahue asked 145 million users to chan..
Read More
In 2007, more than 94 million customer accounts belonging to the department store group TJX were compromised. The man behind it, Albert Gonzalez, was also indicted in the Heartland Payment’s data breach, where hackers stole more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from the payment processing system in 2008. College dropout Gonzalez used several screen names like ‘soupnazi’ (a reference to the popular Seinfeld episode), ‘kingchilli’ and ‘cumbajohny’ in the TJX hack. While Gonzalez was arrested in a Miami hotel, officials found $1.6 million in cash hidden in plastic bags in a drum buried at his parent’s backyard. The soupnazi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010.
In 2007, more than 94 million customer accounts belonging to the department store group TJX were compromised. The man behind it, Albert Gonzalez, was also indicted in the Heartland Payment’s data bre..
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The personal records of over 78 million customers were stolen in 2015 from American health insurance giant Anthem. Investigators suspected China’s role in the breach. Apparently, the hack happened in 2014, when just one user at an Anthem subsidiary opened a phishing email. It gave access to the company’s warehouse. In 2017, Anthem reached a settlement of $115 million — the money will reportedly be used to pay for an additional two years of credit monitoring for the breach’s victims.
The personal records of over 78 million customers were stolen in 2015 from American health insurance giant Anthem. Investigators suspected China’s role in the breach. Apparently, the hack happened in..
Read More
Literally every single Yahoo user account was hacked into. In September 2017, Yahoo confirmed that all of its three billion accounts were exposed as part of an August 2013 breach. In a separate incident in 2016, a hacker called Peace put up the company’s user information for sale in the darknet market site, The RealDeal. The news affected Verizon’s takeover of the company, knocking off $350 million from the sale price. Verizon bought out Yahoo in June 2017.
Literally every single Yahoo user account was hacked into. In September 2017, Yahoo confirmed that all of its three billion accounts were exposed as part of an August 2013 breach. In a separate incid..
What went wrong? The hackers tricked Facebook into giving permission and access codes like security tokens, digital keys. This further let the cyber-hackers pose as users and view others' accounts as their own. "The attackers exploited a vulnerability in the code of the 'View As' feature which is a privacy feature that lets people see what their Facebook profile would look like to another person" Zuckerberg said in a statement.
Why were you logged out? After realising the irregularities in some accounts, Facebook logged out all users who used the 'View As' feature any time soon. Zuckerberg said the tech giant has taken steps to patch the security flaw to prevent any attacker from being able to steal additional access tokens.
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Facebook wasn't affected alone Your Facebook profile wasn't the only social media account under threat. The attackers exploited several software bugs at once to obtain login access to all the social media accounts like Instagram, Tinder, Spotify and Airbnb that were registered to via Facebook.
When did this happen? Earlier this month, Facebook spotted some unusual activity. After irregularities, the tech giant revoked the access codes on Tuesday, and revealed on Friday that 50 million people were affected with this breach.
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Do you need to change your password? No! Facebook has fixed the vulnerability and secured the accounts. Facebook said in a statement that users don't need to do that. However, you need to logged back in again and Facebook will send a notification at the top of your News Feed explaining what happened.
Unclear details
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Facebook isn't sure who was behind the cyberattacks, and if any of these accounts were used to access any private messages or posts.
