The Giant Security Hole That Facebook Doesn’t Care About
By Sam Biddle
Feb 26, 2013 2:40 PM
You probably assume hackers are using all sorts of devious viruses, obscure scripts, "exploits" (whatever that means, right?) and other complex means to break into accounts. But often the means of entry are stupid simple. Facebook has a huge one—and doesn't care about fixing it.
There's a basic premise here that isn't a Facebook problem, but really an internet problem: it's super easy to reset someone's password. The web is an ornate, lumbering thing built on tiny little stilt legs, its foundation unfit for what came after it. It's complex stuff standing on simpler stuff. New on old. And often the old can't cut it: just ask Giz alum Mat Honan, whose online life was savaged because of the stupid-simple processes standing between assholes and us online. You don't need to be a hacker—you can just talk your way in:
Facebook policy change leaves users with nowhere to hide
By Zach Epstein
Oct 11, 2013 at 2:30 PM
Facebook users who prefer to lurk in the shadows will not be terribly pleased to learn of a new change to Facebook’s privacy settings that is currently in the process of being rolled out. Facebook users until now have had the option to hide their accounts from the website’s search service. Enabling the setting would mean that their profiles would not be included in search results even when people search for them by name
Facebook working to fix bug that exposes millions of mobile users to privacy hacks
By Eric Pfeiffer
February 6, 2014
A newly discovered bug could jeopordize the privacy of millions of Facebook mobile users. (ABC News)
The producers of a privacy app say they have unintentionally stumbled across a major Facebook bug that makes millions of users vulnerable to identify theft from hackers.
“We really didn’t believe it at first,” MyPermissions CEO Olivier Amar told Yahoo News in a phone interview. “Any application that uses Facebook to connect can be shut down.”
Put simply, the bug prohibits users from revoking an app’s access to their personal information on Facebook’s permissions page.
