Facebook app developers “Cultura Colectiva,” a Mexican-based media company, and an app named “At the Pool,” an app that helps connect users based on their likes, has been credited with leaking the information of approximately 540 million users. Information records included user likes, comments and IDs. This leak also included around 22,000 Facebook passwords and email addresses. The data was stored on Amazon Cloud servers in public databases. It is unclear how long these have been made available to the public, nor is it clear how many users had access to this information. A Facebook spokesman stated, “Facebook’s policies prohibit storing Facebook information in a public database.” Once alerted to the issue, Facebook and Amazon worked together to take down the databases containing the comprised information. It appears that this information was made public by mistake and not by Facebook themselves. After the Cambridge Analytica breach, Facebook has been making an effort to limit third-party apps’ access to this type of information.
Analyst Notes
Change social media passwords on a regular basis. By changing passwords, and making them more complex, it makes breaching the user’s information more difficult.
