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How you can check if your Facebook account has been hacked


Facebook has set up a website to allow users to check if they have been hacked.

It follows news the social media network had nearly 30 million accounts hacked between September 14 and 27.

The company said hackers were not able to access more sensitive information like password or financial information. Third-party apps also were not affected.

But for anyone concerned their information has been unlawfully accessed, Facebook has set up a website for its two billion users to check.

Facebook has started a site to allow users to check if they have been hacked following the illegal access of nearly 30 million accounts. Source: Getty Images (File pic)
Facebook has started a site to allow users to check if they have been hacked following the illegal access of nearly 30 million accounts. Source: Getty Images (File pic)

On that page, following some preliminary information about the investigation, the question, “Is my Facebook account impacted by this security issue?”, appears midway down.

It will also provide information specific to your account if you are logged into Facebook.

Facebook said the hackers accessed names, email addresses or phone numbers from the accounts accessed.

For 14 million of them, hackers got even more data — basically anything viewable on accounts that friends could see including username, gender, locale or language, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city and birthdate along with other items.

An additional one million accounts were affected, but hackers did not get any information from them.

This page tells Facebook users if they have been hacked. Source: Facebook
This page tells Facebook users if they have been hacked. Source: Facebook

The company is not giving a breakdown of where these users are, but says the breach was “fairly broad”. It plans to send messages to people whose accounts were hacked.

Facebook said the FBI was investigating, but asked the company not to discuss who may be behind the attack.

It had not ruled out the possibility of smaller-scale attacks that used the same vulnerability, Facebook Vice President Guy Rosen said in a Friday (local time) call with reporters.

The company said it had fixed the bugs and logged out affected users to reset those digital keys.

Nearly 30 million Facebook users had their accounts hacked between September 14 and 27. Source: Getty Images (File pic)
Nearly 30 million Facebook users had their accounts hacked between September 14 and 27. Source: Getty Images (File pic)

Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy, said the breach appeared similar to identity theft breaches that have occurred at companies including Yahoo and Target in 2013.

“Those personal details could be very easily be used for identity theft to sign up for credit cards, get a loan, get your banking password, et cetera,” he said.

“Facebook should provide all those customers free credit monitoring to make sure the damage is minimised.”

Thomas Rid, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, also said the evidence, particularly the size of the breach, seemed to point to a criminal motive rather than a sophisticated state operation, which usually targets fewer people.

“This doesn’t sound very targeted at all,” he said.

“Usually when you’re looking at a sophisticated government operation, then a couple of thousand people hacked is a lot, but they usually know who they’re going after.”

With Associated Press