533 Million Facebook Users Personal Data Leaked Online

 

Personal data from 533 million Facebook accounts was discovered to have been leaked online. The data comes from users from over 100 countries, "including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India. It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and, in some cases, email addresses."

The leak was revealed a few days ago on April 3 by chief technology officer Alon Gal of Hudson Rock, a cybercrime intelligence group. It was posted online on a hacking forum by someone, and "available to anyone with rudimentary data skills." Gal would post his findings on Twitter, "I have yet to see Facebook acknowledging this absolute negligence of your data." 

Facebook responded that the reported data was the same as that of a 2019 data leak, "We found and fixed this issue in August 2019." But as many people continue to use the same phone numbers and email addresses, the data could still potentially be useful for scammers and other online schemes.

The leak is being investigated by Ireland's Data Protection Commission, which stated they will work with Facebook to make sure it's claim is true. Joe Tidy of BBC News commented, "The database has likely changed criminal hands many times before now being offered for free."

Sources: Business Insider, BBC News, Twitter 

Image Source: AP News

Bixyl Shuftan