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Using stolen credentials, attackers breached Meta’s GitHub repositories and stole source code as well as data belonging to 1,500 employees.
Using compromised credentials of an employee, attackers gained access to Meta’s GitHub repositories. During the incident, source code and accidentally uploaded employee data were exfiltrated.
The social media conglomerate Meta is currently notifying around 1,500 individuals that their personal data was exposed during a security incident. Attackers accessed the company’s GitHub repositories without authorization using the stolen login credentials of a single employee. Those affected are predominantly Meta employees in the United States.
Source Code and Accidentally Stored Personal Data
According to Meta, business data and source code for certain products accounted for roughly 99 percent of the stolen data volume. The share of personal data stood at merely one percent. Under internal policies, storing such information on external development platforms like GitHub is prohibited; the data reportedly ended up in the code repositories by mistake. Furthermore, a substantial portion consisted of synthetic or anonymized test data.
Meta emphasized that the incident was based on stolen user credentials and that there was no vulnerability in its own products. Internal networks and systems were also not compromised.
Countermeasures and Monitoring
The unauthorized access was discovered several weeks ago and immediately shut down. Meta is cooperating with GitHub and law enforcement in the investigation and has notified the relevant regulatory authorities. In response, all secrets and tokens stored in the affected repositories were replaced. In addition, the corporation is introducing automated scanning mechanisms to proactively block accidental uploads of sensitive data in the future. Meta is offering affected individuals free credit and dark web monitoring services.
(Editorial Team)
