Facebook is facing the next privacy scandal. This time it concerns the company’s password security. Tens of millions of passwords are said to have been stored unencrypted on the company’s servers for years.
Normally passwords are not stored in plain text, but in encrypted form. For this purpose, software generates a checksum for each password, which does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the actual password, but which enables a check to be made. This protects users from unauthorised access to their accounts. This is not said to have been the case with Facebook for years.
During a routine check in January, the data breach was discovered. According to the US company, the passwords were not publicly accessible. However, employees of the company were able to see what is already enormously problematic in terms of data protection. Facebook itself did not specify how long passwords had been stored unencrypted. IT security expert Brian Krebs, who first reported on the breakdown...
