Security flaw allowed hackers to gain access to personal data of 29 million social media accounts
The Irish Data Protection Commission, acting on behalf of the European Union, today imposed a fine of £251m. euros to social media giant Meta for a personal data breach that compromised the privacy of millions of Facebook user accounts in 2018.
This flaw in the security system allowed hackers to gain access to personal data of 29 million accounts of this social network, including 3 million accounts in Europe. The security gap gave access to personal data such as full name, email address, phone number or even date of birth or religion, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in a statement.
The fine follows the completion of two investigations, the first of which began in 2018 when Meta notified the DPC of this breach. Meta patched the security system bug shortly after it was discovered, the Irish Commission said.
