29 Million Facebook Users' Data Affected by Online Attack Last Month

Facebook accepts that an online attack on the world’s largest social network platform last month has affected the profile and data of 29 million people on the social network. The attackers stole the names and contact information of 15 million users, the contact information, which included the email address and phone numbers of individual profile holders. Meanwhile, 14 million users were affected more badly as they have lost more details linked to their profiles, such as their recent search history, geolocation data, gender, birth dates, educational background and lists of people and pages they follow.

Last month, Facebook first detected the attack when it noticed an uptick in user activity. An investigation found that the activity was linked to the theft of security codes. The bugs also allowed the hackers to effectively take over Facebook accounts on a widespread basis, Facebook accepted it, when it disclosed the breach. The attackers started with a small number of accounts, which they can directly control using the View As feature, they got the access of other Facebook users' profiles too.

As the investigation is on, Facebook is to be cooperating with federal and other authorities on the investigation and said the FBI had advised the company not to discuss or disclose who may be behind the attack. The motive though still is not clear, but as the midterm election is to start in the US, specifically there is no indication of the hacking that may be related to the US electoral process. As Facebook’s vice-president of product management Guy Rosen, says “We don't have a specific indication as to the intention of the hackers”.

Facebook also have found that no external apps of the company have been affected by the attack, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp, even the Facebook Messenger is not affected.

Now after the online attack, Facebook is trying to reach out to the affected users individually. The 29 million users who are affected by the online attack, will now receive customized messages from Facebook, which will help identifying specifically which types of information on the respective profiles are involved in the breach. Facebook also informed that the company would also try to reach out to the affected users who have deleted their Facebook account after the attack. Facebook has also started a Web page that will inform users who are logged in whether their accounts were affected.