Facebook Breach Exposes Millions of Users’ Data

In late September, Facebook admitted that a security flaw had allowed hackers to view people’s profiles, and may have let them take over these profiles. The Facebook breach affected millions of users.

Information exposed during the Facebook breach includes recent user check-ins and searches, phone numbers, and self-reported data from profiles.

The social media network hosts more than 2 billion users, and millions were impacted. If you were one of those impacted by the Facebook breach you may be able to file a lawsuit.

Basics of the Facebook Breach

The feature that allowed the Facebook breach is known as the “view as” function. According to the social networking giant, this feature allowed the hackers to see into profiles and potentially take them over.

While Facebook has not said whether the latest attack on its users was targeted at specific groups of people, or said who might have been have been responsible for the Facebook breach, the company said it was working with the FBI and other authorities in the investigation moving forward.

The most recent update from Facebook changed the number of affected users to around 30 million. Originally, the company had reported a potential of almost 50 million accounts affected. Of the actual 30 million accounts breached, around one million had virtually no information accessed, and about 15 million people’s names and contact information like phone number and email address were exposed.

According to the press, around 14 million other users had more significant information exposed, including “username, gender, locale/language, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, birthdate, device types used to access Facebook, education, work, the last 10 places they checked into or were tagged in, websites, people or Pages they follow, and the 15 most recent searches.”

The effects of the Facebook breach have not yet been fully realized, experts note. Information like email accounts can be used to trick people into giving up other sensitive information or passwords.

“Tens of millions of people impacted by the Facebook data breach are likely to find that they have now become intertwined in systematic phishing campaigns that will persistently target them and the organizations they work for for a long time,” wrote Oren Falkowitz, CEO of Area 1 Security, in a recent email.

Filing a Facebook Breach Lawsuit

This is not the first Facebook breach. Earlier this year, the company disclosed a previous breach in which up to 87 million people had information taken through a quiz app. This information was given to Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy embroiled in scandal this last year. Since then, Cambridge Analytica has filed for insolvency and closed its operations.

The most recent Facebook breach of data spurred users to file a class action lawsuit, alleging that the company’s security measures were lax, allowing the breach to occur in the first place.

If you had a Facebook account sometime prior to Sept. 27, 2018 —when the security flaw was fixed—and your account was affected by the Facebook breach, you may be able to join this class action lawsuit investigation.

Join a Free Facebook Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you had a Facebook account by Sept. 27 and your account was affected by the Facebook data breach, you may qualify to join this Facebook class action lawsuit investigation.

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