A few years ago, shocking information circulated on the Internet. Up to 600 million passwords were stored simply in text form on the company’s servers. More than 20,000 Facebook employees had access to the data. Years later, the investigation into this case ended.
The basic rule of our times related to our security is not to share your password with strangers. Many portals and specialists warn how vigilant you should always be in the era of digitalization. Especially in places and portals where we collect a lot of information about ourselves. One of them is Facebook, which has failed its users.
After a long investigation, a decision is finally made
A five-year investigation into Meta’s negligence in storing the passwords of hundreds of millions of users of Mark Zuckerberg’s platforms took place. In 2019, the company officially announced the discovery of an oversight on their side.
“It is widely accepted that user passwords cannot be stored in plain (unencoded) text, understanding the danger of unauthorized access to this data. It is important to remember that passwords, the subject of this case, are particularly sensitive data because they would enable access to social media accounts,” commented Graham Doyle, Deputy Commissioner of the Irish Data Protection Commission.
As a result of the investigation establishedthat the company violated as many as 4 points of European regulations on the protection of personal data. Meta received a reprimand and a fine of EUR 91 million.
Just punishment for serious negligence
Meta’s representatives defend themselves by saying that the error was discovered during a routine audit of data storage practices within the company. They stated that they found no evidence that anyone from the inside had been unjustifiably given access to the passwords, and that they were not accessible to anyone outside.
The committee investigating the case approached the subject very soberly and did not give up after receiving such an explanation. The entire event revealed a serious failure to protect the data of millions of users. Ignoring industry standards that require passwords to be encrypted for only Meta to decrypt. The icing on the cake of this case is the currently ongoing case regarding non-compliance with a number of personal data protection regulations. In 2018, the European Union imposed a record fine of EUR 2 billion.
Source: antyweb.pl
