The Online Newspaper of Lakewood High School

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Facebook Attack

    Facebook Attack

    Earlier this week, Facebook announced that there was an attack that released information about 50 million of its’ users. The attackers were able to utilize a feature on the app called “View as”. This feature allows for a user to see what their account looks like from another users perspective. The attackers used this feature to take over people’s accounts.

    Facebook does not know who these attackers are, or where they are from. They say that they discovered the attack on Tuesday, September 25th,  let the FBI and law enforcement know what happened on Wednesday, September 26th, and fixed the problem on Thursday, September 27th. Facebook is unsure if the accounts were used in a bad way or if people’s personal information were truly accessed, but they are investigating further into it. Facebook has also taken down the “View as” feature in order to prevent this type of attack from happening again.

    Facebook says that the reason this became possible was because of three bugs that appeared in the summer of last year. These distinct bugs came after Facebook made a change in a video loading feature. These bugs caused a vulnerability in the site and most likely made it easier for an attack to take place.

    Social media sites offer up so many ways to connect with people all around the world, as Lakewood resident Susan Zanghi says, “It allows for me to be able to see what is going on with friends and family.” But it also allows for your personal information to be more accessible. So it is important to be careful of what information you put online.

     

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