Author Topic: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability  (Read 1514 times)

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Offline CaseAgainstFaith

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Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« on: October 12, 2012, 04:05:05 pm »
"About a month ago I was just browsing Facebook on my Facebook mobile application and it had an option called 'Find friends using contacts' -- what it does is that it compares the contact list from your phone to the Facebook database to see if you have any friends that are in your contacts but not on your Facebook account," Prakash told The Next Web. "I also later figured out that simply 'searching' a person's phone number (including country code) will show you their account."

Using Prakash's method, a person could search a random phone number to view someone's full profile, and it works nearly every time since, according to Prakash, Facebook's privacy settings are confusing so most people haven't adequately protected themselves. That in and of itself isn't too egregious, but the fact that Prakash claimed he was able to write a script to cultivate a massive phone book of everyone who lets you look them up on Facebook is the scary part.

http://hothardware.com/News/Facebook-Confirms-Massive-Data-Breach-and-Vulnerability/Default.aspx

So I guess if you are smart enough to know how to work Facebook's privacy settings you might be ok?
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Offline kefkaownsall

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Re: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2012, 05:27:35 pm »
It said my account was accessed by a guy in Japan so Facebook really needs to up its encryption

Offline TigerHunter

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Re: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2012, 06:23:48 pm »
I really don't understand this obsession with Facebook's privacy settings. There is nothing on my profile I would care about some random stranger looking at. If you're posting horribly private stuff on the internet with a service that uses your real name, you need to learn to internet.

That said, I do plan to go into privacy settings and make sure that potential employers can't see the political stuff I'm posting when I start applying for jobs.

Offline Witchyjoshy

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Re: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2012, 06:30:24 pm »
At one point in time, if you posted on a group that's members only (and thus private), the post would show up in your daily activity where anyone could read it.

So if you were a stealth gay and/or pagan in a fundie christian household that's active on facebook, you'd be screwed hardcore.
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Offline Random Gal

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Re: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2012, 11:38:34 pm »
Yet another reason why I'm glad I don't use Facebook.

Offline Sylvana

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Re: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2012, 05:07:14 am »
I have a facebook account that I don't think I have accessed in over a year.
I have never posted anything of any interest on facebook, and since they took all the fun stuff out from the first version I find facebook to be an annoyingly tripe and less convenient chat tool.

I cant understand how people can still be so fixated on facebook, let alone be stupid enough to post sensitive information on it.

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Re: Facebook Confirms Data Breach and Massive Vulnerability
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2012, 09:35:07 am »
To be fair, this kind of information gathering is pretty much the point of these services. At least as far as I've ever been able to tell.