Data on 500 million Facebook users leaked online

Data on some half a million Facebook users is available online, according to a leaker who is offering the information for a few euros.

Reuters’ Raphael Satter reported:

A leaker says they are offering information on more than 500 million Facebook Inc users – including phone numbers and other data – virtually for free.

The database appears to be the same set of Facebook-linked telephone numbers that has been circulating in hacker circles since January and whose existence was first reported by tech publication Motherboard, according to Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock.

The AP wrote:

The availability of the data set was first reported by Business Insider. According to that publication, it has information from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses.

Facebook has been grappling with data security issues for years. In 2018, the social media giant disabled a feature that allowed users to search for one another via phone number following revelations that the political firm Cambridge Analytica had accessed information on up to 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent.

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan noted:

Although this data is from 2019 it could still be of value to hackers and cyber criminals like those who engage in identify theft.

Hudson Rock’s Alon Gal pointed out on Twitter that the way the data was sorted and posted on the hacking site this week makes it far more accessible for criminals to exploit.

Rachel Tobac, an ethical hacker and CEO of SocialProof Security, told CNN, “These are the pieces of data cyber criminals spend time searching for to perform social engineering attacks (a type of hacking) — but now they’re all in one place and easily accessible in this leak, which makes social engineering quicker and easier.”