FACEBOOK’s data breach. Cyber Crime vs. Cyber Security!

Facebook has been hacked again! One of the essential Apps in the world. There are over 2.23 billion monthly active Facebook users with doubtless an enormous users’ database. Facebook’s massive cyber-security system was unable to prevent it. Although many people still cannot believe, that is the situation now. Perhaps, you have heard from at least one friend, “I do not feel safe on Facebook anymore.” How? Why? Which effects could arise? All these worldwide asked questions would we answer in this article.

The very logical question: How could it have happened?
Facebook has not invested enough in cybersecurity! Well, that is what happened: “In July 2017, Facebook inadvertently introduced three vulnerabilities in its video uploader”, said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of product management, in a call with reporters. When using the “View As” feature to view your profile as someone else, the video uploader would sometimes appear when it should not display at all. When it seemed, it produced an access token using the person whose profile page was being viewed. If a hacker has reached that token, he could log into the account of the other user.
Yes, Facebook covered the vulnerability on 27. September. However, if you are interested in cyber security, you will, of course, ask, how FACEBOOK did not discover this vulnerability during the longtime “July 2017 to September 2018”. Moreover, Facebook is not sure right now when the attack started. That means the hackers could have had access to user data for a long time. It is an alarming new accident, which turns your eyes again to the danger of cyber-crime in today’s world. Cybersecurity systems, teams, and tests must develop themselves quickly and efficiently to keep up with the high sophistication of attackers’ intelligence.

What are the hacker’s motives?
Many people assume that a single hacker cannot carry out this attack. Just in films, we can see that the protagonist can do something like this. Nevertheless, we do not want to jump to conclusions. Until now, there is no clear objective of this hack. According to Facebook, no private messages were accessed. No credit card information was taken in the breach, Facebook said. That may change as the company’s investigation continues. The FBI is also investigating, but we should not expect an accused soon. It took two years to approve that North Korea was behind the Sony hack in 2016. What we already know is that these attacks do not carry good intentions for sure, and it is hard to think of them as aimless.
Cybercrimes has made a difference in the world of the Internet. They play a role in political competitions and cause billions of losses, perhaps destroying entire companies that cannot afford what happened to Facebook in 2018.

That is why you must take it very seriously. If you want to open a new business or anything on the Internet, cybersecurity should be on your to-do list. If you do not, because you think that your business is small, it would be like counting your money in the street between many robbers without expecting them to attack you.

Has Facebook to get punishment?
If Facebook is found to have breached European data protection rules (GDPR), the company can face fines of up to four percent of its global revenue. It will not be the first time this year. Facebook has already been fined £500,000 -the maximum amount possible under the law- by UK regulator the ICO over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Therefore, this latest breach, which is the largest in the company’s 14-year history, may produce grave consequences.
Reading the question “Should I delete my Facebook account because of security issues?” in itself is a horrible consequence of this breach. I have never thought that Facebook can be in danger of cyber-attacks. However, I have deleted any critical information from my account, changed my password that I am using for my e-mail address or bank account. In other words, Facebook started losing customers’ trust all over the world. Doubtless, it will not be suitable that Facebook with its importance and influence in our lives to be out of daily habits, but we can imagine everything now. Let us see how Facebook will treat with this problem in the following days.

How Can I protect my business?
As mentioned above, Facebook can solve these problems or not, but not every organization could come through it. Your business could quickly lose the customer trust if it suffers from security issues. Always try to avoid such a situation, increase your cybersecurity measures, raise your awareness and the awareness of your employees, still perform different penetration testing, so as not to have a weak spot for one year. Every businessperson today must consider the (GDPR). Customers today are also very much afraid of hacker attacks, so of course, they do not want to deal with a poorly protected business.
Facebook’s data breach was not the first shocking attack in the recent years. Sony, Netflix, Nokia, and others were victims. This one will not be the last too. Cybercrime has become a reality in our lives. Eliminating them will not be easy, but I regard it as impossible. Protecting ourselves as much as possible is what we can do. Do not make your startup or large company an easy target for hackers. I think that all statistics on the cost of cybersecurity in global organizations will change soon. Everyone will realize that he or she must protect his or her ideas and his or her customers’ data before thinking about anything else. Cybersecurity has a mighty battle verses cybercriminal.