Facebook admits storing passwords in plain text
San Francisco, Mar 21: Facebook on Thursday admitted that millions of passwords were stored in plain text on its internal servers, a security slip that left them readable by the social networking giant's employees.
"To be clear, these passwords were never visible to anyone outside of Facebook and we have found no evidence to date that anyone internally abused or improperly accessed them," vice president of engineering, security, and privacy Pedro Canahuati said in a blog post.
The blunder was uncovered during a routine security review early this year, according to Canahuati.
He said that the Silicon Valley company expected to notify hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users; tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users whose passwords may have been vulnerable to prying eyes.
The basic security shortcoming was revealed on the heels of a series of controversies centered on whether Facebook properly safeguards the privacy and data of its users.
The basic data defense mistake would also appear contrary to the "Hacker Way" mantra that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has espoused at the social network.
"One Hacker Way" is the main address of Facebook's vast campus in the California city of Menlo Park.
Brian Krebs of security news website KrebsOnSecurity.com cited an unnamed Facebook source as saying the internal investigation had so far indicated that as many as 600 million users of the social network had account passwords stored in plain text files searchable by more than 20,000 employees.
The exact number has yet to be determined, but archives with unencrypted user passwords were found dating back to the year 2012, according to Krebs.
"We have fixed these issues and as a precaution we will be notifying everyone whose passwords we have found were stored in this way," Canahuati said.
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India win 3rd ODI by 9 wickets, clinch ODI series 2-1 against South Africa
Visakhapatnam (PTI): A maiden century for Yashasvi Jaiswal and crucial fifties from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli gave India a nine-wicket win in the third ODI, that sealed the hosts a 2-1 series triumph over South Africa, here on Saturday.
Chasing 271, India overhauled the target with 10.1 overs and nine wickets to spare.
Rohit Sharma scored 75 off 73 balls with seven fours and three sixes, while Kohli finished the formalities with a four to reach 65 not out off 45 balls with six fours and three sixes.
Jaiswal scored an unbeaten 116 off 121 balls with 12 fours and two sixes.
Earlier, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Yadav claimed four wickets each as India bowled out South Africa for 270 in 47.5 overs.
Brief Scores:
South Africa 270 in 47.5 overs (Quinton de Kock 106, Temba Bavuma 48; Prasidh Krishna 4/66, Kuldeep Yadav 4/41)
India 271/1 in 39.5 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal , Rohit Sharma 75, Virat Kohli 65 not out.
