Facebook says hackers were able to access millions of phone numbers and email addresses

  • CNBC | by: Salvador Rodriguez |
  • 10/12/2018 12:00 AM
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[Only 30 million, not 50 million, people's access tokens stolen in Facebook data breach, company says]
Only 30 million, not 50 million, people's access tokens stolen in Facebook data breach, company says   4 Hours Ago | 00:58Facebook revealed on Friday that a hack in September allowed attackers to harvest millions of phone numbers and email addresses.

The company said hackers used 400,000 accounts under their control to gain the access tokens of 30 million Facebook users, according to a blog post. Access tokens are used by Facebook users to log into their accounts without having to type in their passwords.

Among the 30 million affected users, 14 million had their names, contact information and sensitive information, such as their gender, relationship status and recent place check-ins, exposed to the attackers, Facebook said. Another 15 million users had their names and contact information breached, and 1 million users solely had their access tokens stolen. Facebook has reset the access tokens for all of those users.

Facebook also published a website where users can go to check if their accounts where affected by the breach, and if so, to what degree their information was exposed.

The company said the breach is under investigation by the FBI, which asked Facebook "not to discuss who may be behind this attack."
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