Facebook hacked

A sophisticated hacking attack managed to penetrate Facebook’s computer system but there was no evidence that user data was compromised, the social networking giant said Friday.

The attack occurred when employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised and which allowed malware to be installed on their computers.

Facebook said the malware exploited a flaw in Oracle’s Java program, but was later patched.

The social media giant said Friday on its security blog that the company discovered in January that its system had been targeted in a sophisticated attack. The attack occurred when a handful of the company’s employees visited a developer’s compromised website, which led to malware being installed on their laptops.

Facebook says it has found no evidence that user data was compromised.

The company has fixed the infected machines, informed law information and an investigation is remains under way. Facebook also says it was not the only company targeted in the attacks but was one of the first to discover it.

News of the attack will raise red flags among privacy advocates, coming just weeks after Twitter urged more than 250,000 users to change their passwords after their information was compromised.