Tag Archives: Facebook

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Details On Massive Facebook Data Leak Hack

As you’re probably aware, recently a vast trove of Facebook profiles totaling 533 million in all, wound up on a hacker forum. The company was initially silent about the issue, but the company has now released a statement about the matter. Unfortunately, that statement isn’t terribly reassuring.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that the company reassured its users and investors that it wasn’t hacked.

The bad and unsettling news is that Facebook says the hackers simply scraped the profile information from their website. The company stressed that the system itself was not breached, but rather, that the hackers used a large set of phone numbers linked to the profiles they ultimately made off with.

Based on a review of a sample of the data, nearly every record published to the hacking forum contained that user’s cell number, Facebook ID, name, and gender. While that’s not sufficient to outright steal someone’s identity, it represents and excellent start from a hacker’s perspective.

The company’s formal statement regarding the matter reads in part as follows:

“This is another example of the ongoing, adversarial relationship technology companies have with fraudsters who intentionally break platform policies to scrape internet services.” 

“As a result of the action we took, we are confident that the specific issue that allowed them to scrape this data in 2019 no longer exists.”

A deeper look into the matter reveals that the ‘specific issue’ in question that allowed the massive data leak was a feature called ‘Contact Importer’ that ostensibly made it easier for friends to find one another on the platform. As it turns out, hackers quickly learned they could abuse the feature and Facebook ultimately pulled the plug on it, but of course, not before the hackers made off with hundreds of millions of user profiles.

Independent security researchers around the world were less than impressed by the company’s delayed, and somewhat lackluster response. In trying to paint the issue as being old news, they completely miss the point. More than half a billion of their users saw their data compromised because of a feature the company itself introduced and then later deactivated, when its potential for abuse came to light. For a company as enormous as Facebook, it’s not a good look.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Facebook Adding Physical Security Key Support For Mobile Devices

Many industry insiders consider physical security keys used in the context of two-factor authentication login schemes to be the final word in digital security. That is because even if your password is compromised, if you’re using a physical piece of hardware that has to be inserted when prompted for to complete the process, a hacker can’t breach the account in question without first having physical access to the key.

Facebook has supported physical security key 2FA for desktop environments since 2017, but until quite recently, iOS and Android users simply didn’t have that option. That has now changed, thanks to a recent announcement by Facebook that they were expanding their physical security key 2FA offering to support both product ecosystems.

Almost universally, privacy and security experts applaud this move. Far and away the most common form of two-factor authentication in use today is the text code. You enter your password as you normally would, and then the site you’re logging into send you a six or eight digit code to your phone. You enter that code to complete the login process.

The problem with that approach, however, is that text messages can be intercepted by determined hackers, which makes that form of 2FA not as robust or secure as a physical key. Granted, it’s still heads and shoulders better than not having 2FA enabled at all. However, if you’re looking for maximum security with a minimally intrusive process, then a physical security key will make your organization and the sensitive data you’re trying to protect that much more secure.

Kudos to Facebook for expanding their physical security key offering, and here’s hoping that other companies in the space follow their example in short order. Anything we can do to reduce the number of data breachers has to be counted as a win.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Why So Many Facebook Users Were Recently Logged Out

If you’re a regular Facebook user, you probably just stay logged in so you can quickly get updates about what’s going on in your social circle. Or, if you use it primarily for business, so you can save a step when it comes time to post an update about your company or brand.

Recently, however, Facebook mass logged users out of its system, which many users found to be jarring and unexpected.

The mass logout occurred on January 22nd at 8:30 PM EST. At that point, all users who were currently logged in received a message stating “Session Expired. Please login again.”

Unfortunately, since so many people just stay logged in constantly, this led to some unexpected backlash as a significant percentage of users didn’t remember their passwords. Some users were able to log back in with a click, but others had to enter their passwords. Many of these took to Twitter to vent their frustrations, prompting a formal response from Facebook, which reads in part as follows:

“We’re looking into reports that some people are currently having to login again to access their Facebook accounts. We believe this was due to a configuration change and we’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.”

As frustrating as it may have been, it’s certainly not the end of the world, and the vast majority of users resolved it simply by resetting their passwords and logging back in. Nonetheless, the incident underscores just how important social media has become in our lives.

Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social media ecosystem have woven their way deep into the fabric of everyday life and living for tens, if not hundreds of millions of people around the world. They rely on it to keep in touch with loved ones, share, communicate, and market.

Even small, innocuous changes can lead to ripple effects that can cause frustration or even panic. In any case, kudos to Facebook for getting to the bottom of the matter. If you’re one of the legions of users who forgot your password, here’s hoping you didn’t have too much trouble getting logged back in. It is a good idea to keep a log or notebook of usernames and passwords in a safe, secret place.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Facebook And Instagram Chats And Messages Get Cross Compatibility

If you use both Facebook and Instagram, either personally or in the conduct of your business, then a recent Facebook announcement regarding interoperability will make you smile.

The company has been working for years toward the goal of greater interoperability among all of its core services and this is a huge step in that direction.

Best of all is the fact that there’s nothing special you have to do as a user of either of those services. If you’re logged onto Facebook or using the Messenger app, you now have the option of sending a message directly to an Instagram user without requiring them to download and install the Facebook messaging app. It will simply appear in their Instagram interface.

Naturally, the reverse holds true as well. Instagram users can communicate with Facebook users without requiring the Facebook user to download and install the Instagram app.

This is great news and extremely convenient, but there’s more going on here than simply enhancing each user’s experience.

In tandem with that, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has been very open about his long term goals. More specifically, his goals to provide a more seamless communications experience that utilizes robust end to end encryption, making that communication safer and more secure. That’s good news whether you’re a casual user talking to family and friends, or an Enterprise user sharing sensitive or proprietary company information.

In any case, it’s great news indeed, and kudos to the folks at Facebook for making it a reality. Granted, the rollout has only just begun. At present, there’s only a limited amount of interoperability, which includes the ability to send and receive messages as described above. However, the company has been doggedly determined to reach this point, and they’re definitely not going to stop now. Give the new interoperability a try today, and stay on the lookout for more from the company in the weeks and months ahead.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Facebook Working On Business Suite For Managing Social Media

Social Media giant Facebook, recently announced a new app aimed at Enterprise users.

If you maintain an active corporate presence on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll be particularly interested in the company’s new offering.

It is designed to give business owners a dashboard that will make it easier to manage their company’s social media presence, allowing users to post simultaneously to both Facebook and Instagram and receive notifications and alerts related to both platforms in a single location.

Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, had this to say about the new app:

“We’re building Facebook Business Suite for small businesses first, but this is a long-term investment to make this the main interface for businesses of all sizes who use Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. It is available for small businesses globally starting today and will expand to larger businesses next year.”

The new Business Suite is the latest in a series of moves the company has been making in recent months as it pushes more earnestly into e-commerce. In May of this year (2020), the company rolled out a new set of tools allowing business owners to set up a digital storefront on Facebook and sell goods and services to their followers.

As Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently noted, companies of all sizes have made significant investments into their digital footprints and are “increasingly viewing them as their primary storefronts. So we’re working on a number of ways to deepen this experience, helping people buy items and services directly within our apps… Overall, though, our business depends on the success of small businesses, so this is a moment where we feel that we’re well-positioned to be champions for small business’ interests and supporters of important infrastructure that they’re going to need in order to move online.”

The bottom line is, if you use Facebook and/or Instagram, the new Business Suite is well worth a look.

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