Facebook confesses Cambridge Analytica breach could affect 87 million users

Facebook today announced new security measures as part of its overall cleanup after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In doing so, the company admitted that as many as 87 million users’ data had been compromised in the breach.

CTO Mike Schroepfer outlined the company’s intentions to protect users’ information by taking a “hard look” at app permissions. One such measure he mentions is informing users whose data may have been accessed by Cambridge Analytica.

And then he drops the bomb:

In total, we believe the Facebook information of up to 87 million people — mostly in the US — may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Considering the original reports from the New York Times set the number of exposed users at around 50 million, that’s a pretty big increase in numbers.

In response to this massive breach, Facebook is locking down all of its major APIs, including those for Events, Groups, and Pages. Schroepfer says any apps wishing to access data from any of these features will need approval from Facebook first. He also stated the site will no longer allow apps that request access to personal data such as religious background, education, and work history.

Given the new scale of the Cambridge Analytica breach, Facebook’s essentially coming back around after the horses have fled in order to lock down an empty barn. Maybe these steps should have been taken before the data of a whopping 87 million people was compromised.