Facebook reportedly looking to acquire a cybersecurity firm in the wake of its most recent hack

Facebook is in the market for cybersecurity help. The Information reported this weekend that the social network giant is looking to acquire a cybersecurity firm, likely to gain key security talent and to serve as a positive public relations move. Two anonymous sources tell The Information that the company has approached multiple firms about a possible purchase and that this deal could close by end of the year. It isn’t clear what kind of security help the company is looking to acquire.

This news comes nearly a month after Facebook announced that hackers stole access tokens for 30 million accounts (pared down from an initial estimate of 50 million), allowing them to gain complete access to these user profiles. Of those 30 million, the hackers accessed basic contact information (name and either email or phone number) for 14 million accounts, and additional data like gender, religion, location, device information, and the 15 most recent searches for another 15 million accounts. No information was accessed for the remaining 1 million accounts. As a reminder: you can check to see if your account was compromised here.

The company clearly needs to not only up its security but also make its efforts to do so clear, so an acquisition makes sense.