Social network confirms “sophisticated attack” on its systems
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“Last month, Facebook Security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack,” Facebook announced on a blog this week.
The attack occurred when a “handful” of Facebook staff visited a mobile developer website that was compromised, which led to malware being installed on their laptops.
However, the network “found no evidence that Facebook user data was compromised.”
Sophos Lab security guru Paul Ducklin says “I’m willing to accept that claim” by Facebook, although he notes its CSO Joe Sullivan admitted the cyber crooks made off with corporate type information including software code from the company laptops.
The laptops were fully-patched and running up-to-date anti-virus software, Facebook also confirmed.
“As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day.”
“As part of our ongoing investigation, we are working continuously and closely with our own internal engineering teams, with security teams at other companies, and with law enforcement authorities to learn everything we can about the attack, and how to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
