25,936 Malicious Apps Use Facebook APIs to Obtain a Range of Information

25,936 malicious apps currently using facebook login or messaging API, capable of obtaining a range of information from the Facebook profile such as name, location, and email address.

The Cambridge Analytica data-gathering scandal is mainly due to permissions abused by the developers that associated with the Facebook Login feature. 87 Million Facebook Users Affected by the Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal.

After this incident, Facebook has made some import decision and changes in Facebook products Such as Events API, Groups API, Pages API, Facebook Login, and other Functions.

Also Read Key Elements and Important Steps to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Trustlook discovered 25,936 malicious apps based on the App Insights that scans for apps around the world and provides 80 pieces of information for each app, including permissions, libraries, risky API calls, network activity, and risk score.

“When people use Facebook Login, they grant the app’s developer a range of information from their Facebook profile. Back in 2015, Facebook also allowed developers to collect some information from the friend networks of people who used Facebook Login.” reads Trustlook statement.

Trustlook Spokesperson told Threatpost that all the 25,936 malicious apps can do the same thing that led to Cambridge Analytica issue. All the identified malicious apps having risk score 7, it might do things like capturing pictures and audio when the app is closed or making an unusually large amount of network calls.

Earlier this week it was reported that Twitter sold data access to the Cambridge University academic who also obtained millions of Facebook Inc.

According to Twitter, “In 2015, GSR(Global Science Research) did have one-time API access to a random sample of public tweets from a five-month period from December 2014 to April 2015.Based on the recent reports, we conducted our own internal review and did not find any access to private data about people who use Twitter.”

“To be fair, Facebook is not the only company with its APIs embedded in malicious applications. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and Yahoo offer similar options to developers, and thus their user data faces similar exposure.” reads Trustlook statement.