More People Became Victims Of Facebook Security Lapse

Saanvi Araav - Apr 21, 2019


More People Became Victims Of Facebook Security Lapse

Facebook updated a 21 March blog post to admit that millions more Instagram accounts had been affected by its security lapse.

On one of the busiest days for American news, Facebook has decided to admit that the number of people affected by a security lapse was much higher than it first stated.

The Security Lapse Of Facebook Affects More Users
Millions of Instagram accounts were also affected by insecure password storage.

Facebook updated its blog post on March 21, which disclosed they had stored hundreds of millions of encrypted passwords by mistake, to reveal that millions more of Instagram accounts were also affected.

Initially, the post on the 21st referred to the number of victims as:

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However, in the recent update, Facebook revealed that they found out other Instagram logs about the insecure password storage. The update said:

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The Security Lapse Of Facebook Affects More Users
For Facebook's case, if someone stole the unencrypted passwords, they would be able to use them easily.

Evan Greer of Fight for the Future (non-profit privacy advocacy) claimed that with this timing, it is clear that Facebook wants to bury this huge scandal.

She said:

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Therefore, the false is mainly on Facebook's side because they have stored lots of passwords without any encryption for a long time. The common practice for the whole industry is to store passwords with layers of encryption so no one can use it beside the owners. In Facebook's case, if someone stole the passwords, they would able to use them easily.

The Security Lapse Of Facebook Affects More Users
There is no evidence of abuse or misuse of these passwords.

On the other hand, in an interview with the Guardian, a spokesman of Facebook said that there isn't any evidence of the passwords' misuse or abuse. He said:

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