540 million Facebook user records found exposed on a public server

Data security is paramount in today’s digital age. It is not an exaggeration when experts state that user data is one of the most important resources, about as important as oil and minerals. Internet services companies that collect and use such data have a responsibility towards the user communities. Facebook, the social media giant and the poster child of user data collection has found itself in another lapse of security, as researchers have found over half a billion Facebook user records on exposed servers.

The exposed records were discovered by cybersecurity experts from a firm called UpGuard. According to the experts, a Mexican digital media corporation named CulturaColectiva and a defunct California-based App development company named At The Pool stored users’ information on exposed public servers without even a password, allowing access to anyone who knew where to look. CulturaColectiva’s records contained details like comments, likes, reactions, account names, etc. of over 540 million Facebook users on an Amazon storage server. At The Pool’s stash of data contained users’ friend lists, photos, group memberships, and so on.

A spokesperson for Facebook stated that it was against the company’s policy to store its users’ information on exposed public servers and that it had contacted Amazon to pull the information offline.

The global online community woke up to the dangers of misused user information when political data firm Cambridge Analytica acquired more than 87 million Facebook user records to build profiles on voters and influence the 2016 American presidential election.