Facebook left millions of passwords readable by employees

Facebook employees were able to read millions of user passwords for years, the company said on Thursday after a security researcher posted about the issue online.

"Security 101 dictates that under no circumstances should passwords be stored in plain text and at all times must be encrypted," said cyber-security expert Andrei Barysevich, of Recorded Future.

"There is no valid reason why anyone in an organisation, especially the size of Facebook, needs to have access to users' passwords in plain text."

Facebook said there was no evidence that its employees abused access to the data, but thousands of staff could have searched for them.

The company said the passwords were stored on internal company servers, where no outsiders could access them.

But the incident reveals a huge mistake by the company amid many the past couple of years.

Facebook will change targeted advertising to combat discrimination

European Union fines Google €1.49 billion for illegal industry practices

The security blog KrebsOnSecurity said about 600 million Facebook users may have had their passwords stored in plain text.

Facebook said in a blog post on Thursday that it would probably notify "hundreds of millions" of Facebook Lite, millions of Facebook and tens of thousands of Instagram users that their passwords were stored in plain text.

Facebook Lite is designed for users with older phones or low-speed internet connections, and is mainly used in developing countries.

Facebook said it discovered the problem in January. But security researcher Brian Krebs said that in some cases, the passwords had been stored in plain text since 2012.

Facebook Lite was launched in 2015 and Facebook bought Instagram in 2012.

Mr Barysevich said he could not recall any major company gaving been caught leaving so many passwords exposed.

He said that he had seen instances where much smaller organisations made the information readily available to programmers and customer support teams.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Key figures in the life of the fort

Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.

Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.

Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.

Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.

Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.

Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae

The Details

Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5