Facebook, the social media giant is set to face a fine of up to £1.25 billion after revealing that 50 million user accounts were compromised on Tuesday 25 September, with affected users being notified via their Facebook accounts.

This recent data breach has been established as the largest security breach Facebook have faced. It is also one of the more severe breaches, as the hackers obtained “access tokens”, which are a form of security key allowing users to browse Facebook on numerous devices without entering a password.

Obtaining these “access tokens” allowed the hackers to gain full access to a user’s account, including third party applications.

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the security breach, stating:

As cybercrime continues to rise affecting several large organisations who have had their personal data accessed or stolen, it is now vital that everyone considers and evaluates the best cybersecurity solutions to protect their business.

Recently, both small and medium organisations have been urged by the Business Fraud Prevention Partnership (BFPP) to seriously consider protection against cyber-crime. The founder of the BFPP, Edward Whittingham discussed misconceptions regarding cyber-crime, stating:

In a recent security report, which analysed 850 cyber-crimes against UK universities and colleges from 2017 to 2018, there was clear evidence to show that the cyber-attacks were often committed by disgruntled students or staff members within these organisations.

The report was conducted by the government-funded agency, Jisc,who discovered that the crimes were not being committed by professional hackers or organized crime groups, but instead the perpetrators were much closer to home.  This conclusion was made due to the attacks showing “clear patterns” of activity during term times, whilst attacks were reduced during holiday periods.

Dr John Chapman, the head of security operations at Jisc, who assists with providing technology services to the higher and further education field, stated:

According to Action Fraud’s cyber statistics, there were 12,372 cyber-crime reports made between October 2017 and March 2018, which resulted in victims losing a total of £28 million.

Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre is led by the City of London Police. As one of the founding members of the Global Cyber Alliance, The City of London Police also run Cyber Protect, which along with Action Fraud was put in place, in order to investigate, detect, and protect individuals and organisations from cyber-crime and fraud.

Action Fraud’s statistics show that out of the 12,372 cyber-crimes reports, 4,796 were reports of social media and email accounts being hacked, which resulted in victims losing a total of £11 million.

It is most likely that the reported cyber-crimes were committed by criminals unbeknownst to the victims, as statistics show that around 50% of cyber-crime and fraud is conducted abroad.

In relation to the Action Fraud statistics, The Temporary Commander, Pete O’Doherty of the City of London Police, stated the following: