Facebook Breach Was Work of Spammers, Not Foreign State: Report
*By Carlo Versano*
The worst data breach in Facebook's history was likely executed by spammers, not a foreign state, according to a [report](https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-tentatively-concludes-recent-hack-was-perpetrated-by-spammers-1539821869) in the Wall Street Journal.
The hack, in which 30 million user accounts were made vulnerable, appeared to be the result of a group of hackers known to Facebook's ($FB) security team.
The company has been investigating the matter since discovering the attack in late September. Initially, there was concern that the hackers gained access to user accounts through a manipulation of digital tokens, bearing the hallmarks of a coordinated attack from a nation-state. But Facebook's internal review now suggests the hackers were more interested in making money through deceptive advertising than promoting any ideological affiliation.
Whether that's any comfort to the tens of millions of people whose personal information ー including names, emails, religious affiliations, and locations ー was accessed in the wide-ranging attack remains to be seen.
Facebook is under enormous pressure, both internally and externally, to shore up its security systems in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It also faces ongoing scrutiny over its handling of the Russian misinformation campaign during the 2016 U.S. election.
This week, a group of investment funds with stakes in the company backed a proposal to remove Mark Zuckerberg from his chairman role. But because of Facebook's dual class share structure ー in which the CEO controls 60 percent of voting rights ー it's "able to quite easily swat away investor proposals like the one we're discussing," Jake Kanter, UK executive editor at Business Insider, told Cheddar.
So while the proposal may be dead on arrival, it represents another black eye in the media for the beleaguered social giant ー which was the point all along, according to Kanter. Facebook investors unhappy with the company's corporate governance have few options other than making noise in the press and hoping "Mark Zuckerberg sits up at takes notice."
But in the end, Kanter said, "the only person who can fire Mark Zuckerberg is Mark Zuckerberg."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/some-facebook-investors-want-to-take-down-zuckerberg).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
