Facebook Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Breaches ==== On September 28, 2018, Facebook experienced a major breach in its security, exposing the data of 50 million users. The data breach started in July 2017 and was discovered on September 16.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/28/everything-you-need-to-know-about-facebooks-data-breach-affecting-50m-users/|title=Everything you need to know about Facebook's data breach affecting 50M users|work=[[TechCrunch]]|access-date=October 2, 2018}}</ref> Facebook notified users affected by the exploit and logged them out of their accounts.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928165450/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html |archive-date=September 28, 2018 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Facebook Security Breach Exposes Accounts of 50 Million Users|last1=Isaac|first1=Mike|date=September 28, 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=September 29, 2018|last2=Frenkel|first2=Sheera}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/28/facebook-50-million-user-accounts-security-berach|title=Facebook says nearly 50 m users compromised in huge security breach|last=Wong|first=Julia Carrie|date=September 28, 2018|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=September 29, 2018}}</ref> In March 2019, Facebook confirmed a password compromise of millions of Facebook lite application users also affected millions of Instagram users. The reason cited was the storage of password as plain text instead of encryption which could be read by its employees.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/news/tech/not-tens-of-thousands-but-millions-of-instagram-passwords-exposed-admits-facebook-2108667.html|title=Not Tens of Thousands, But Millions of Instagram Passwords Exposed, Admits Facebook|website=News18|date=April 19, 2019 |access-date=April 19, 2019}}</ref> On December 19, 2019, security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered a database containing more than 267 million Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, and names that were left exposed on the web for anyone to access without a password or any other authentication.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2019/12/20/267-million-facebook-users-data-has-reportedly-been-leaked/|title=267 million Facebook users' data has reportedly been leaked|last=Ghoshal|first=Abhimanyu|date=December 20, 2019|website=The Next Web|language=en-us|access-date=December 21, 2019}}</ref> In February 2020, Facebook encountered a major [[security breach]] in which its official [[Twitter]] account was hacked by a [[Saudi Arabia]]-based group called "[[OurMine]]". The group has a history of actively exposing high-profile social media profiles' vulnerabilities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/facebook-s-twitter-account-hacked-n1132901|title=Facebook's Twitter account hacked|access-date=February 7, 2020|website=[[NBC News]]}}</ref> In April 2021, ''The Guardian'' reported approximately half a billion users' data had been stolen including birthdates and phone numbers. Facebook alleged it was "old data" from a problem fixed in August 2019 despite the data's having been released a year and a half later only in 2021; it declined to speak with journalists, had apparently not notified regulators, called the problem "unfixable", and said it would not be advising users.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/11/another-huge-data-breach-another-stony-silence-from-facebook|title=Another huge data breach, another stony silence from Facebook|access-date=April 21, 2021|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=April 11, 2021}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page