*By Carlo Versano*
Facebook shares dropped Friday afternoon after the company announced that 50 million accounts may have been compromised by hackers exploiting a security vulnerability.
Guy Rosen, the company's VP of product management, said the breach was discovered on Tuesday and affected its "View As" feature, which allows people to see what their own profile looks like to someone else. Rosen said the vulnerability has been patched.
"We’re taking this incredibly seriously and wanted to let everyone know what’s happened and the immediate action we’ve taken to protect people’s security," Rosen, wrote in a [blog post](https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/) on Friday.
Facebook ($FB) discovered that unknown attackers manipulated a piece of code that allowed them to steal security tokens that usually keep accounts logged in.
The post was light on detail and was seemingly intended to show the company's efforts at transparency, just months after it was pilloried for a mishandling of the Cambridge Analytica breach.
After that scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg [said](https://m.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104712037900071) in a Facebook post, "We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't, then we don't deserve to serve you."
Israel and Hamas have announced a cease-fire to end a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and brought life in much of Israel to a standstill.
President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday designed to curtail a dramatic rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Anyone who gets vaccinated at select state-run vaccination sites in New York next week will receive a lottery scratch ticket with prizes potentially worth millions, as the state tries to boost slowing vaccination rates.
Amazon says it will extend its ban on police use of its face-recognition technology beyond the one-year pause it announced last year.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 444,000, a new pandemic low and a sign that the job market keeps strengthening as consumers spend freely again, viral infections drop and business restrictions ease.
The U.S. economy’s faster-than-expected reawakening had some Federal Reserve officials discussing whether it might be time to start planning for easing back on one of the central bank’s levers for keeping interest rates low.
The European Union has taken a step toward relaxing travel for visitors from outside the bloc, with EU ambassadors agreeing on measures to make it easier for fully vaccinated visitors to get in.
Congress has passed legislation aimed at combating hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It would expedite federal reviews of hate crimes and provide grants to local law enforcement.
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo has disclosed that he was paid a $3.1 million advance to write his COVID-19 leadership book last year and will make another $2 million on the memoir over the next two years.
President Joe Biden says the U.S. will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks.
