Meta fined $101 million for storing user passwords in plaintext

Meta has been fined $101 million by Irish officials for storing hundreds of millions of user passwords in plaintext, which were accessible to about 2,000 employees. This security lapse was disclosed in 2019 during a routine review. The investigation revealed that the passwords were logged and stored without proper encryption, violating established security practices. Meta stated there was no evidence of unauthorized access to the passwords. This fine adds to the over $2.23 billion in penalties Meta has faced from the EU for various violations of data protection regulations since 2018.