Digital security researchers reveal that over 540 million Facebook user records were placed on public storage servers. Apparently, it happened by accident.
According to the researchers at UpGaurd, a digital security firm, double batches of Facebook records were uncovered and taken from two (different) third-party firms.
Involved Firms
In the press release, the firm announces that Cultura Colectiva, a Mexican, digital media firm left above 540 million Facebook records on the server. It included likes, comments, account profiles, and more. The record was kept on the Amazon S3 server with no password. It means the data was accessible to anyone!
The most shocking news is that even fashion retailers are not safe from data breaches!
At the Pool is a Californian digital Apps company that had a separate backup file with more sensitive information of more than 22,000 FB users. The confidential information included private photos, interests, group memberships, check-ins, and friend lists of the users.
Action Updates
As per UpGaurd, both the two companies, At the Pool and Cultura Colectiva have not responded to the data removal requests yet. So, Facebook intervened and requested Amazon to take the information offline.
Read More about Data breaches: Personal Data Being Hacked from Equifax
Facebook’s Response
Facebook doesn’t allow to store its users’ data on exposed storages. It is investigating the case further. However, it hasn’t found any proof of any data misuse to date.
To cover third-party apps and other firms, Facebook has introduced a new Bug Bounty Program. Details of the program will come soon.
Have a look at recent data breach of sales engagement startup
Data Lapse History
After the Cambridge Analytica Scandal 2018, it is the newest data breach that involves Facebook, the social media giant.
In the previous case, the British political data firm, Cambridge Analytica scraped more than 87 million Facebook records without consent. The lapse was done on purpose to build voter profiles for helping political campaigns for Ted Cruz and then Donald Trump.
Final Opinion
In the end, UpGaurd’s Director, Chris Vickery comments – “Storing personal information collected from end users is a liability. The more you have, the greater that liability becomes.”
Incidents of information leakage are not limited to Facebook but, Google is also the prey of such malicious activities: Read more technology news!
