Facebook faces $1.6b fine and formal investigation over massive data breach

Irish data regulator could penalize the social network after hack of nearly 50m accounts.

The Irish Data Protection Commission has opened a formal investigation into a data breach that affected nearly 50m Facebook accounts, which could result in a fine of up to $1.63bn.

The breach, which was discovered by Facebook engineers on Tuesday 24 September, gave hackers the ability to take over users’ accounts. It was patched on Thursday, the company said.

The commission regulates Facebook’s adherence to GDPR, a European law that strengthens the privacy protections of individuals and introduces harsh penalties for companies that fail to protect user data.

The commission noted that Facebook had informed the commission that its internal investigation was continuing and that the company continued “to take remedial actions to mitigate the potential risk to users”.

“We have been in close contact with the Irish Data Protection Commission since we have become aware of the security attack and will continue to cooperate with their investigation,” said a Facebook spokeswoman.

Shortly after the Irish Data Protection Commission announced its investigation, the Spanish Data Protection Agency announced it would collaborate on the investigation to protect the rights of Spanish citizens.

The security breach is believed to be the largest in Facebook’s history and is particularly egregious because the hackers stole “access tokens”, a digital security key that allows users to stay logged into Facebook over multiple browsing sessions without having to enter their password each time. When an attacker has this token they can take full control of a victim’s account, including logging into third-party applications that use Facebook Login.

Cyber Security Auditor - Jugal Patel

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