FACE-BUGGED!

Facebook is currently in a soup that is unpalatable.

The social networking king is scampering to get rid of a bug within the site that potentially gives spammers a treat by accessing user names, photos and other personal data.

According to the information, if an entity acquires a Facebook user’s e-mail id, despite a wrong password; the website still issues a “Please re-enter your password” page, which includes the entire name of the user including the Facebook display photograph. Although this feature comes to the aid of users to alert them if they have entered a wrong login, on the flipside it enables spammers to quench their thirst for information on the widespread 500 million users on Facebook.

A researcher on this issue, Atul Agarwal has stated that with a simple written script, a spammer can enter Facebook e-mail addresses and gradually reach the user name.

“The login page shows images of people, even when they’ve properly set their privacy settings to keep this information private. Harvesting this data is very easy,”

said Agarwal.

Meanwhile, Facebook puts the ball in the ‘newly existing bug’s’ court.

“We have technical systems in place to prevent people’s names and photos from showing to unrelated users upon login, but a recently introduced bug temporarily prevented these from working as intended. We are already working on a fix and expect to remedy the situation shortly,”

a spokeswoman from the social networking company said.

“Scraping Facebook for this type of information is prohibited,”

she further added.

Spammers and cyber criminal such as Koobface would undoubtedly be in hot pursuit for the bug. With Facebook trying to remedy the matter, it would be a sight to see who crosses the finish line first.

In the mean time all you Facebook fans, “Ever logged in lately?”

Posted in: Facebook,Internet,Latest News,Tricks