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Meta warns one million users about potential data leak through malicious apps

Meta warns one million users about potential data leak through malicious apps

Facebook

Facebook’s parent company Meta had some troubling news for its customers on Thursday as it issued a warning that the login information of around a million users was potentially compromised.

According to the official statement, the leak happened due to “malicious apps”. The applications were listed on Google Play Store and the Apple Store as games and other types of apps to trick people into downloading them and it accessed the phone through the Facebook welcome page.

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Meta’s researchers said that on most occasions, the malicious apps asked the user to log into their Facebook account to continue and in the process, stole the username and password information.

The number of such apps were estimated to be somewhere around 400 and Meta spokesperson Gabby Curtis confirmed said that the company is trying to ascertain the number of affected users.

“This is a highly adversarial space and while our industry peers work to detect and remove malicious software, some of these apps evade detection and make it onto legitimate app stores,” wrote Meta’s Threat Disruption Director David Agranovich in the company’s official blog.

Meta has already reached out to both Apple and Google to de-list the apps from their online stores and have provided them with a complete report of their findings. The company has also reached out to the potentially affected users to guide them on how to protect their data and Agranovich said that as the activity did not occur on Meta systems, it will be easier for the company to take note of the issues.

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