Zuckerberg, Sandberg’s Facebook Accounts Affected In Latest Hack

By Alyssa Fisher October 1, 2018

Fifty million Facebook users were affected by the social media giant’s latest security breach — including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Facebook announced Friday that an attack on its computer network exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million accounts, the New York Times reported. It was the largest breach in the company’s 14-year history.

Zuckerberg and Sandberg were among those hacked, two people familiar with the situation told the Times.

The issue stems from a feature called “View As,” which lets users see what their profiles look like to others, according to Time Magazine. Through it, attackers were able to gain control of the accounts.

Nothing was posted or revealed, but the attackers could have gained access to the hundreds of apps that allow users to log in using their Facebook accounts, such as Spotify and Instagram.

Zuckerberg said in a conference call with reporters that the vulnerability was fixed and “View As” was temporarily disabled.

An investigation is underway into who the attackers are and why they breached the system.

“We’re taking it really seriously,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m glad we found this, but it definitely is an issue that this happened in the first place.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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