Even Facebook Encounters Security Bugs

Last week (Jun 21st, 2013) Facebook announced a security bug that exposed users' personal contact information. In a post on the Facebook Security Page, Facebook explained that some of the information that the site uses to deliver friend recommendations was "inadvertently stored with people's contact information as part of their account on Facebook". As a result, anyone using Facebook's Download Your Information tool to download their friends' data were presented with information that should have remained secure.

This bug affected 6 million users.

What's more shocking is that it's been live since last year, but was discovered only last week. Although the security team fixed the bug less than 24 hours after it was detected, this highlights the fact that even with a strong technical team and massive resources , it is impossible to ensure that no bugs exist. This is worrisome as social media continues to integrate deeper into our daily lives.