Facebook says leak of 533m accounts is old news. But my date of birth, name, etc haven't changed in years, Zuck
- Reference: 1617656713
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/05/facebook_data_dump/
- Source link:
The data dump was flagged up by Alon Gal, co-founder and CTO of infosec startup Hudson Rock. The information – which also includes people’s names, marital status, occupation, and location – was siphoned from Facebook in 2019 via a vulnerability in the platform. The data was packaged up and sold online to miscreants in June 2020.
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Now that same database is up for grabs to anyone who messages a particular Telegram account and asks nicely. The records were pilfered from hundreds of millions of Facebook profiles spread across 104 countries; that includes 32,315,282 accounts in the US, and 11,522,328 in the UK, according to a post on the underground forum viewed by The Register . All of the data amounts to over 70GB. It's [2]reported the price tag on the database has been falling, and now it's free of charge.
All 533,000,000 Facebook records were just leaked for free.
This means that if you have a Facebook account, it is extremely likely the phone number used for the account was leaked.
I have yet to see Facebook acknowledging this absolute negligence of your data. [3]https://t.co/ysGCPZm5U3 [4]pic.twitter.com/nM0Fu4GDY8 — Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) [5]April 3, 2021
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Facebook is keen to shrug this off. We're told the data theft was in the news in 2019, and the exploited security hole was closed that same year. That doesn't quite change the fact that people's stolen info has been circulating online for nearly three years, and that even though it all happened in 2019, names, dates of birth, contact details, and other data are unlikely to have changed in that time. Instead, it's likely the data is still largely useful for fraudsters to exploit.
“This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019," a spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg's tech giant told us. "We found and fixed this issue in August 2019."
Meanwhile, Gal told The Register : “Firstly, I'd like Facebook to acknowledge the leak and the importance of it.
"Secondly, they should alert all users that this has happened and have the users be alert to impending social engineering and hacking attacks. Lastly, I think Facebook should rotate Facebook IDs to block bad actors from being able to link phone numbers to Facebook profiles through the leak as can be currently done, this is only a small step but a crucial one.”
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You can see if your profile is in this latest leak by entering your deets into [8]Have I Been Pwned or [9]Have I Been Zucked . ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YGuIeAWiLNtKKhoau@zHwAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://mashable.com/article/facebook-2019-data-leak-533-million-users-free/
[3] https://t.co/ysGCPZm5U3
[4] https://t.co/nM0Fu4GDY8
[5] https://twitter.com/UnderTheBreach/status/1378314424239460352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YGuIeAWiLNtKKhoau@zHwAAAABI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[8] https://haveibeenpwned.com/
[9] https://haveibeenzucked.com/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: I need to look this up
What's your name?
Re: I need to look this up
There may be a few individuals out there who cannot create Facebook profiles using their real name -
Unfortunate in having the same name, but fortunate in not being able to create a Facebook profile because they too are named "Mark Zuckerberg"
Well I didn't use my real DOB when I signed up for a FB account for the reason that the same info you provide to these social media sites are the same ones that scammers will use for identity theft if they get leaked. I never use my real DOB when signing up for any website that asks for it, if they want to know my age ill give it to them, but I see no good reason why they need my exact birthday.
I'm not on Faecesbook either, but my old unused email address is listed in 17 breaches - it's a good job I never use my real name, DOB, address or phone number...
Time for the usual security advice
But my date of birth, name, etc haven't changed in years
Well then. It appears to be past time to change them. Yes, all of them. And put in place a program of periodic changes. And do not use simple change patterns like stepping your middle initial by one with every update. Casual attitudes toward security simply will not do in this day and age.
Wot not even a we take your privacy seriously?
I need to look this up
It would be interesting to find my details in the Facebook dump because I've never had a Facebook account. I tried to sign up back in the early days - using my real name and personal details - but Facebook refused to open an account because my real name sounded like a fake name to them. After several attempts to create an account they told me that they told me that they would sue me if I tried to setup an account again.
I am so grateful to Facebook!