(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Friday that hackers stole digital login codes allowing them to take over up to 50 million user accounts, after what has already been a difficult year for the company’s reputation.
Facebook, which has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users, said it has been unable to determine yet whether the attacker misused any of the affected accounts or stole private information. It also has yet to identify the attacker’s location or whether specific victims had been targeted.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg described the incident as a “really serious security issue” in a conference call with reporters.
Shares in Facebook fell 3.0 percent in afternoon trading, weighing on major Wall Street stock indexes.
Facebook made headlines earlier this year after the data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy. The disclosure has prompted government inquiries into the company’s privacy practices across the world, and fueled a “#deleteFacebook” social media movement among consumers.
U.S. lawmakers said on Friday that the hack may boost calls for data privacy legislation.
“”This is another sobering indicator that Congress needs to step up and take action to protect the privacy and security of social media users,” Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner said in a statement.
‘COMPLEX’ FLAW
Facebook’s latest vulnerability had existed since July 2017, but the company first identified it Tuesday after spotting an unusual increase in use of its “view as” privacy feature on Sept. 16.
“View as” allows users to see what their own profile looks like to someone else, enabling them to verify their privacy settings. The flaw inadvertently put the wrong digital code, similar to a browser cookie, on the devices of people using “view as.”
