According to a report by Krebs on Security, millions of user’s passwords on Facebook were exposed for years This is because Facebook stored them in plain text rather than in an encrypted form as it should ideally.

This glitch enables anyone who has internal access to files to exploit the user’s data.

Normally, a user’s password is protected with encryption to keep them secure.

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Due to simultaneous errors, some third party applications left passwords accessible to their company employees whose number can go as high as 20,000.

How many users were exposed?

According to Krebs, around 200 million to 600 million Facebook users might have been affected by this security breach.

Facebook has acknowledged its mistake in a blog post stating that it found out about the problem in January during a security review.

The company claims that it has fixed the problem and will notify the users who were affected by this.

Exposed Passwords weren’t misused

According to Facebook, there’s no evidence which says that the exposed passwords were used in an unethical manner. Nor were they leaked by the company employees.

Approximately, 2,000 Facebook employees searched through the files containing passwords, though it’s not clear what for. The password logging reportedly started as early as 2012.

Also Read: How Facebook Collects Your Data Even When You are Not Logged In

The security issues with Facebook have been coming up for a long time now, starting from the case of Cambridge Analytica.

In October, a report by Money Guru said that Facebook login details were being sold on the dark web for as low as $3.90 each.

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