German minister on Facebook glitch: Didn't expect such frightening unprofessionalism

Germany's Justice Minister on Friday said she would hardly have expected such "frightening unprofessionalism" from Facebook after the company acknowledged a glitch that exposed passwords of millions of users to its employees.

"My experience is: Facebook only takes responsibility when it's forced to do so," Katarina Barley said in a statement, adding that the company must inform all affected users about the glitch.

The passwords, stored in readable format within Facebook's internal systems, were accessible to as many as 20,000 Facebook employees and dated back as early as 2012, cyber security blog KrebsOnSecurity, which first reported the issue, said in a report on Thursday.