Social media sites and applications are like gold mines for information and hackers would be stupid to ignore them. Companies like Facebook have been gathering user data for a long time and it has even sparked a lot of debate and controversy on how much of that data they’ve been keeping private and not selling it.
A leaker has just said that they have information on more than 500 million Facebook users. This information includes phone numbers and other data. The leaker is offering all of it for free. This data looks like the same data that has been rumored to be circling around in the circle of hackers in January. Facebook was criticized heavily back in 2018 over allegations of them selling their data and misusing it.
According to Alon Gal, the co-founder of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock from Israel, the data seems to be genuine. The data is being offered for just a few euros of digital currency on several websites used by low-level hackers. Alon and other journalists have been able to verify some of the data by comparing it with the people they know. The data is legit and that is alarming.
Since a lot of phone numbers have been leaked. Users should stay vigilant against attacks like baiting, pretexting, phishing, or spear phishing. To prevent yourself from harm, don’t open emails or attachments from unknown people, update your antivirus and be wary of too good to be true deals.
Facebook gave a statement saying that the information was very old and was related to an issue they have since fixed back in 2019. But, the problem is that I haven’t changed my phone number in six years and I am sure that most people are the same. The information being old won’t help much.
Time to get some of the weirdest offers and deals of my life since my phone number is out in the wild.