Facebook Inc. officials have begun briefing lawmakers about its massive security breach as the social-media company tries to quell a potential backlash in Washington over its latest setback involving user data.

Facebook briefed Department of Homeland Security officials last week and some individual lawmakers this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is expected to meet with other congressional committees, including the Senate Intelligence Committee, about the breach as early as this week, other people familiar with the matter said.

It isn’t clear whether Facebook provided information pointing to possible perpetrators or about how the hackers exploited the security flaws. A Facebook spokesman confirmed that the company was briefing lawmakers, but declined to provide further details.

Facebook said Friday that hackers gained access to nearly 50 million accounts in what amounts to the largest-ever security breach at the social network. It said it disclosed the breach even though its internal investigation remained in the very early stages.

In an onstage interview Monday with The Wall Street Journal as part of Advertising Week in New York City, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions, Carolyn Everson, compared the hackers to an “odorless, weightless intruder that walked in” that the company could detect only “once they made a certain move.”