Facebook Admits Year-Long Data Breach Exposed 6 Million Users

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Facebook admits year-long data breach exposed 6 million users

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:08pm EDT

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc has inadvertently exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers over the past year, the world's largest social networking company disclosed late Friday.

Facebook blamed the data leaks, which began in 2012, on a technical glitch in its massive archive of contact information collected from its 1.1 billion users worldwide. As a result of the glitch, Facebook users who downloaded contact data for their list of friends obtained additional information that they were not supposed to have.

Facebook's security team was alerted to the bug last week and fixed it within 24 hours. But Facebook did not publicly acknowledge the bug until Friday afternoon, when it published an "important message" on its blog explaining the issue.

A Facebook spokesman said the delay was due to company procedure stipulating that regulators and affected users be notified before making a public announcement.

"We currently have no evidence that this bug has been exploited maliciously and we have not received complaints from users or seen anomalous behavior on the tool or site to suggest wrongdoing," Facebook said on its blog.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE95K18Y20130621

[KamaAina]

1. The friend suggestion feature is creepy

On two different occasions, it has suggested repeatedly that I friend someone who is deceased.

[arcane1]

2. I have two dead friends with Facebook pages...

It's rather depressing when their birthday comes up and FB suggests a gift

[They_Live]

3. I sure am saying "I told you so" a lot over the past 2 weeks

also this part is odd:

"Facebook's security team was alerted to the bug last week and fixed it within 24 hours."

Yeah, they fixed it in 24 hours after it had been a problem for at least a YEAR.

I'm still glad I never set up a page there.

[Skittles]

8. but OMG T_L, how EVER do you keep up with friends and family?!?!?!

[blkmusclmachine]

4. FACEBOOK

NO!

[Wilms]

5. I'm shocked, I tell you!

OK. I'm not.

[davidpdx]

6. So is the blog post their "notification"?

or are they going to actually notify all 6 million people? Inquiring minds want to know....

[Jim Lane]

7. Facebook security breaches is sort of like NSA surveillance.

The details change from one incident to the next, but the underlying theme is a constant.

My solution is simple: I assume that anything I post on Facebook will be available to everyone in the world in perpetuity. I pay no attention to the site's privacy protections.

[Catherina]

9. +1 n/t