Fifty million Facebook users were affected by the social media giant’s latest security breach — including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Facebook announced Friday that an attack on its computer network exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million accounts, the New York Times reported. It was the largest breach in the company’s 14-year history.

Zuckerberg and Sandberg were among those hacked, two people familiar with the situation told the Times.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The issue stems from a feature called “View As,” which lets users see what their profiles look like to others, according to Time Magazine. Through it, attackers were able to gain control of the accounts.

Nothing was posted or revealed, but the attackers could have gained access to the hundreds of apps that allow users to log in using their Facebook accounts, such as Spotify and Instagram.

Zuckerberg said in a conference call with reporters that the vulnerability was fixed and “View As” was temporarily disabled.

An investigation is underway into who the attackers are and why they breached the system.

“We’re taking it really seriously,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m glad we found this, but it definitely is an issue that this happened in the first place.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount