How to Know If the Latest Facebook Hack Affected You
Facebook said last month that its engineering team had discovered an issue where hackers could exploit a vulnerability in the “View As” function of the site. This feature allows users to see what their profile looks like to someone else, but hackers were able to use it to steal Facebook access tokens and hijack people’s accounts. Access tokens work like a digital set of keys and allow you to stay logged in using the Facebook app, rather than having to enter a password every time you want to access the site.
The hack affected 50 million service accounts. At the time, Facebook, as a precaution, revoked access tokens for nearly 90 million accounts and notified users who were logged out of why this happened.
At that point, Facebook began investigating the issue, so it was not known exactly which users were actually affected.
While the investigation is still ongoing, Facebook is now notifying users if any of their data has been compromised by a hack. You can also check for yourself by clicking here and scrolling down the page. There, you will likely see one of the following two messages: you are safe or your account has been compromised, and here is what data hackers could access.
I was lucky enough to stay out of this attack, but one of my Lifehacker colleagues was less fortunate.
Unlike other attacks, in which you might want to change your password or track your credit card information, this one attacks data such as your name and contact information, as well as possibly your specified gender, religion, places where you have been tagged and Facebook pages. you liked it (to name a few).
While this could mean a little more spam in the future, there is nothing you can do about a Facebook hack other than knowing better what data you provide to the service, improve email and phone spam filters, and possibly completely rethink how you use it. Facebook .