Facebook: security lapse reveals private photos
Facebook security lapse reveals private photos :
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, California, Oct. 17, 2007. Facebook said on Wednesday it will allow members to turn off a controversial feature that monitors the Web sites they visit, and its chief executive apologized for not responding sooner to privacy complaints.(Xinhua Photo)
BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhuanet) — Unwelcome strangers were allowed to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook Inc. because of a security lapse, getting around a recent upgrade to the website’s privacy controls.
The Associated Press verified the loophole Monday after receiving a tip from Byron Ng, a Vancouver, Canada, computer technician. Ng started searching for security weaknesses last week after Facebook unveiled more ways for 67 million members to restrict access to their personal profiles.
But the added protections weren’t enough to prevent Ng from pulling up the most recent pictures posted by Facebook members and their friends, even if the privacy settings were set to restrict the audience to a select few.
After being alerted Monday afternoon, a Facebook spokeswoman said the Palo Alto-based company would look into the problem. By late Monday, Facebook appeared to have closed the security hole.
The lapse serves as another reminder of the perils of sharing sensitive photos and personal information online, even when websites pledge to shield the information from prying eyes.
Before the fix, Ng’s computer-coding trick enabled him to find private pictures of Paris Hilton at the Emmy awards and of her brother Nicholas drinking a beer with friends and photos of many other people who hadn’t granted access to Ng.
Using Ng’s template, an AP reporter was able to look up random people on Facebook and see the most recent pictures posted on their personal profiles even if the photos were supposed to be invisible to strangers.
The revealed snapshots showed Italian vacations, office gatherings, holiday parties and college students on spring break. The AP also was able to click through a personal photo album that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg posted in November 2005.
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