Facebook fired workers who helped hackers by taking bribe

Meta, the company that runs the social media site Facebook, has fired more than two dozen of its workers and contractors from the company for accepting bribes in exchange for giving hackers access to user accounts. Some of these workers had helped the hackers by taking bribes of thousands of dollars.

The report published in the Wall Street Journal states that some of these workers had illegally captured user accounts. Meta, which runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has data of more than 3.7 billion users and for this reason the company and its users have been targeted by hackers several times. Meta said last month that it was preparing to notify about one million Facebook users that their account details had been stolen through some apps. Meta has given some contractors a tool from Facebook to help users who have forgotten their passwords or whose accounts have been taken over by hackers. There is a possibility of misuse of this tool by some contractors.

Last week, Meta announced plans to lay off more than 11,000 employees. This company’s total workforce is about 13 percent. This is one of the biggest layoffs at tech companies this year. Meta is facing difficulties like rising cost and weakness in advertisements.

The business of tech companies grew rapidly during the pandemic and its impact was also seen on their valuations. The valuations of these companies have declined significantly this year due to increase in inflation and interest rates. meta In a message to employees, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook, said: “Weak macroeconomic conditions, increased competition and reduced advertising have resulted in our revenue well below expectations. I made a mistake and I take responsibility for it.” He said the company needs to focus its resources on areas with high potential for growth, such as AI, advertising and the Metaverse project. The laid off staff will be given 16 weeks base pay plus two additional weeks base pay for each year of service. Apart from this, the company will also pay for six months of healthcare cost.