Facebook has plans to acquire a cybersecurity company – report

MANILA, Philippines – Facebook has plans to strengthen its security in the wake of the recent data breach that affected over 29 million accounts.

According to The Information (paywall), the social media company has approached several cybersecurity firms about a possible acquisition.

The person close to the situation cited by the report did not identify the firms involved but said a deal could happen as early as the end of the year.

The report adds that Facebook would likely buy software that the company could integrate with its existing services such as tools that could secure individual accounts.

Facebook can’t seem to catch a break. Earlier in the year, it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of Facebook users. Less than a month ago, a vulnerability in the platform was exploited by attackers to steal users’ access tokens.

These incidents have caused Facebook’s trustworthiness to tumble. With the expertise of a cybersecurity firm, Facebook seeks to reduce the chances of another attack, and to recover some of its users’ trust back. – Rappler.com