Facebook hires auditors to probe alleged data breach

SAN FRANCISCO - The world's largest social media company Facebook said on Monday that it has hired a digital forensics firm, Stroz Friedberg, to investigate the alleged leakage of user data abused for the US presidential campaign in 2016.

Facebook has been mired in a dispute over a possible data breach after the data of more than 50 million users of its service was said to be inappropriately used by a British data analysis company, Cambridge Analytica, in activities allegedly connected with US President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.

British privacy regulators are seeking a warrant to search the offices of Cambridge Analytica on Monday.

The move came as US and European lawmakers demanded an explanation of how the consulting firm gained access to the data.

The dispute incurred the biggest one-day drop of Facebook's stocks by 7 percent in four years on Monday.

"Independent forensic auditors from Stroz Friedberg were on site at Cambridge Analytica's London office this evening," Facebook said.

The auditing was launched at the request of Briton's Information Commissioner's Office, which has announced it is pursuing a warrant to conduct its own on-site investigation, Facebook said.

It noted that Cambridge Analytica had agreed to comply and afford the firm complete access to their servers and systems.

"This is part of a comprehensive internal and external review that we are conducting to determine the accuracy of the claims that the Facebook data in question still exists," Facebook said.

California-based The Mercury News daily reported on Monday that Facebook data was used by Trump's campaign during the primaries but not during the general election.

US Federal Election Commission numbers showed the firm collected $5.9 million in 2016 from Trump's campaign, the daily said.

The Associated Press quoted Facebook as saying last week that Cambridge Analytica received user data from a Facebook app years ago that purported to be a psychological research tool, though the firm wasn't authorized to have that information.

Facebook said an estimated 270,000 people had downloaded the app and shared their personal details with it.

On Friday, Facebook said in an official post that it had suspended the Strategic Communication Laboratories, "including their political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica". It said the two companies had failed to delete user data acquired in 2015 in violation of Facebook rules.

On Saturday, the company said the claim of a data breach is completely false, arguing that people knowingly provided their information.

Facebook asserted on Monday that Cambridge Analytica had told it that the data accessed had been destroyed.

"If this data still exists, it would be a grave violation of Facebook's policies and an unacceptable violation of trust and the commitments these groups made," it said.

Xinhua - Reuters

(China Daily 03/21/2018 page12)