Facebook to be fined $1.6 billion over latest EU data breach
Follow UsIn the latest blow, Facebook is now expected to be fined a whopping US $1.6 billion by the European Union (EU) privacy watchdog due to the latest data breach which exposed the private information of at least 50 million users, reports said.
The latest data breach is said to have violated the EU's new privacy law called the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect in May. The new law by the EU aims to safeguard users data for people within the European Union.
The breach was discovered on Friday and Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DCI), Facebook's lead regulator in Europe, has asked the social network to reveal more information about the hack including information on EU users that were impacted.
.@DPCIreland is awaiting from Facebook further urgent details of the security breach impacting some 50m users, including details of EU users which have been affected, so that we can properly assess the nature of the breach and risk to users. #dataprotection #GDPR #eudatap https://t.co/3oM3BSaSBS
— Data Protection Commission Ireland (@DPCIreland) September 30, 2018
In the biggest-ever security breach after Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook on Friday admitted hackers broke into nearly 50 million users' accounts by stealing their "access tokens" or digital keys.
This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people's accounts.
The hackers also gained access to personal information from third-party apps and services, like Tinder, Spotify, Airbnb, and Instagram, which allow users to sign up using their Facebook login.
According to Facebook, users’ passwords were not revealed in the data breach, though impacted accounts did have to re-log into the social network on Friday.
Senator Mark R. Warner has also called for a full probe into the incident.