Monday, October 15, 2018

Facebook Downgrades Hacking Figures


Facebook on Friday revealed that hackers had stolen extensive information from 14 million users in the hack it announced last month.

According to The Hill, the company said an estimated 30 million people overall were affected by the hack, downgrading its initial estimate that information on 50 million users had been compromised.

But while the pool of users affected by the breach has shrunk, Facebook revealed that the hackers still managed to access an alarming amount of personal information for millions of users.

The company said that of those 30 million, hackers accessed information on 14 million that included the most recent places they had checked in, their 15 most recent searches, the devices they used to access Facebook, birthdate, relationship status, religion and other information listed on their profiles.

Another 15 million had their names and contact information exposed, Facebook said, adding that hackers didn't access any information for the remaining 1 million people in the 30 million affected. Facebook said that no credit card information was stolen in the hack.

The hack is likely the largest and most extensive that the company has ever suffered, and it comes as Facebook is still recovering from the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which a right-wing political consulting group improperly obtained data on millions of users.

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