Facebook lowered today to 30 million the number of accounts of its pirated users

Facebook lowered today to 30 million the number of accounts of its users hacked by "hackers", who stole personal data from most of them, compared to 50 million that had initially announced.

The vice president of product management of the social network, Guy Rosen, explained in a telephone press conference that the data stolen from 15 million users were the name and contact information (email, phone number or both).

The other 14 million users were stolen, in addition, data they had on their Facebook profile, such as their name, sex, language, marital status, place of residence, date of birth, employment, education, etc.

The hackers were also made with information related to the last 10 sites that those Internet users had visited in the social network, as well as their last 15 searches, the devices from which they connect to Facebook and the pages that follow.

There were another million users who were affected by the attack, since the pirates managed the access codes to their accounts, but they did not steal data from them.

In this way, the total number of affected people is 30 million, which is 20 million below the 50 that the company pointed out when it reported the attack for the first time two weeks ago.

Rosen explained that they are collaborating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to find those responsible, but refused to offer more details at the express request of the police force.

The company based in Menlo Park (California, USA) detected an unusual upturn in activity on September 14, so it initiated an investigation that found a vulnerability in the software code and determined that it had suffered an attack .

This vulnerability, which existed since July 2017, affected the "See as" mode, a skill that allows users to view their profile as if they were other people.

Among the measures adopted by the company to respond to the attack, it proceeded to immediately disconnect all affected accounts that had activated the option to connect to Facebook without the need to enter the username and password.

Facebook ensured that "during the next few days" it will send messages to each one of those affected to explain what type of information has been stolen.