Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 1 hr ago
Hackers Accessed Meta GitHub Repositories, Affecting About 1,500 People
Hackers used a Meta employee’s stolen credentials to access company GitHub repositories.
Meta says the intrusion was detected a few weeks ago and that it shut down the attackers’ access.
About 1,500 people, mostly Meta employees in the US, are being notified.
Meta says 99% of the information taken was business data, including software code, while 1% was personal data.
The personal information was mistakenly stored in the repositories, against company policy, and Meta has not said what types of information were involved.
Some records that appeared to be personal data were synthetic or anonymized test data, which may make genuine records harder for the attackers to identify.
Meta says this was not a breach of its products or internal systems, and it does not believe the hackers specifically targeted its data.
The company is offering affected people monitoring services and adding safeguards to keep user data off GitHub and detect uploads made by mistake.
Hackers accessed some of Meta’s GitHub repositories using an employee’s stolen credentials, affecting about 1,500 people.
Meta said 99% of the stolen data was business data, including software code, while 1% was personal data.
Most of the people being notified are Meta employees in the United States.
Meta said the personal data was added to the repositories by mistake and that it does not believe the hackers specifically targeted its data.
The company shut down the attackers’ access, notified law enforcement and GitHub, and is offering affected people credit and dark web monitoring.
- Who
- An outside group accessed the repositories using an employee’s stolen credentials. About 1,500 people were affected, most of them Meta employees in the US.
- What
- Hackers accessed Meta GitHub repositories and took business data and a small amount of personal data.
- When
- The intrusion was detected a few weeks before the report. Notifications began on Tuesday.
- Where
- Some of Meta’s GitHub repositories.
- Why
- Meta does not believe the hackers were specifically after its data. The sources do not state the group’s motive.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Meta detected the intrusion into some of its GitHub repositories.
Meta’s security team shut down the attackers’ access and brought in GitHub and law enforcement.
Meta began notifying people whose information was affected.
- Affected people
- Roughly 1,500
- Data taken
- 99% business data; 1% personal data
- Main group affected
- Most were Meta employees in the US
- Access method
- An employee’s stolen credentials
- Notifications began
- Tuesday
What people are saying
This was not a vulnerability in any Meta product, and Meta’s internal systems were not breached. Meta business data held in a GitHub repository was improperly accessed using an employee’s stolen credentials – this included a small amount of personal data for a limited number of people, most of whom were Meta employees
We’ve since rotated secrets found in the repositories, implemented new controls to prevent user data from being stored in GitHub, and worked with GitHub on additional measures to protect our repositories
Sources
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