Former Meta Employee Investigated for Downloading 30,000 Private User Photos

Severity: Medium (Score: 51.9)

Sources: Dev.Ua, News.Ycombinator

Summary

A former Meta employee is under investigation for allegedly downloading approximately 30,000 private images from users while developing a program to bypass internal security measures. The breach was discovered over a year ago, leading to the employee's termination and a referral to UK law enforcement. The Metropolitan Police arrested the suspect in November 2025, who has since been released on bail and must report to authorities in May 2026. Meta has notified affected users and upgraded its security systems in response to the incident. The investigation is being conducted by the Metropolitan Police's Cybercrime Unit, following a referral from the FBI. This incident adds to a series of security issues faced by Meta, including previous fines for data breaches and mishandling user information. Key Points: • A former Meta employee is suspected of downloading 30,000 private user photos. • The employee allegedly created software to bypass Meta's internal security systems. • Meta has notified affected users and improved its security measures following the breach.

Key Entities

• Data Breach (attack_type)
• Meta (company)
• T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter (mitre_attack)