800-454-9103
Facebook Apps Leaked Users Information
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Symantec is a web security firm that protects your computer from being hacked. Symantec announced today that nearly 100,000 Facebook applications accidentally leaked access to users Facebook accounts from several years.Facebook applications are Web applications that work on the Facebook platform. Facebook says users install 20 million applications on its platform every day. Third parties, most of the time advertisers, had access to users profiles, photos, chat and other personal information, according to a post on Symantec’s blog.
Facebook recognizes the issue at hand and states it’s being addressed. But Facebook also says that Symantec’s report contains some “inaccuracies” and that user information was never shared with any unauthorized third parties. Symantec’s report said that over the years, hundreds of thousands of apps may have gotten “access tokens,” which is a sort of a spare key to people’s accounts.
Symantec stated there was no way to estimate how many access tokens were leaked. However, they did state that most app developers probably didn’t realize they had this access. Symantec feels that Facebook “has taken corrective action to help eliminate the issue”.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNN that the site worked with Symantec to address the problem. Through Investigation there are no signs of any unauthorized parties gaining access. Facebook announced that it has been “working with Symantec to identify issues in our authentication flow to ensure that they are more secure.”
This will require all Facebook websites and applications to switch to a new, more secure system for developers. Facebook believes that those changes will create a better and more secure experience for users on an app.Facebook currently uses a more secure authentication system for applications, but has been still supporting the older, less secure version, Symantec said. The site hasn’t found evidence that any leaked information has been used in a way that violates Facebook policies. Facebook users can invalidate any unauthorized access an app may have by changing their passwords.
Developers whose apps use Facebook’s old system will have to convert to a new, more secure development system between now and October 1st, 2011. The new system gives users installing an app a detailed list of the access that app will have to their personal data.
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