Facebook discovers massive data breach exposing 50 million users' information

(Image credit: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images)

published 28 September 2018

Another day, another Facebook leak.

This time around, a network attack has exposed nearly 50 million users' private data, Facebook told The New York Times on Friday. Hackers apparently found a coding flaw that allowed them to take over user accounts before Facebook noticed the breach earlier this week. It has since patched the issue and on Friday logged 90 million users out of their accounts in a security measure.

This incident seems to be on par with Facebook's last big infiltration, at least in terms of numbers. Cambridge Analytica, a data firm utilized by the Trump campaign, similarly harvested data from 50 million Facebook users during the 2016 election cycle. Facebook has also faced scrutiny for not blocking Russia-linked hackers from interfering in the 2016 election using its platform. Altogether, these controversies have led to Senate hearings, free-falling stocks, and repeated promises from Facebook to fix everything and protect user data.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox