Meta heavily fined for 2018 data breach impacting 29 million accounts

Meta Platforms has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) for a 2018 data breach that impacted millions of users in the bloc. This is the latest financial hit the company has faced for flouting stringent privacy laws. The data breach is said to have impacted approximately 29 million Facebook accounts globally, of which approximately 3 million were based in the European Union and European Economic Area (EEA). The incident was disclosed back in September 2018.

The breach took place when cyber attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code, specifically in the ‘View As’ feature, which allows users to see how their profiles appear to others. This flaw resulted in unauthorised access to personal data, including users’ full names, contact details, locations, workplaces, dates of birth, religions, genders, and even their children’s information, according to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).

“The vulnerabilities behind this breach caused a significant risk of misuse of these types of data by allowing unauthorised exposure of profile information,” Graham Doyle, DPC Deputy Commissioner, said in a statement.

Meta addressed the breach shortly after it was discovered and informed the DPC as well as the affected users. Of the 29 million accounts compromised worldwide, approximately three million were based in the EU and European Economic Area.