Facebook data breach

Facebook needs no introduction. It is one of the oldest social media platforms that has spawned several other social media platforms and a social media revolution.

Data breaches are not new. By now, we have heard about several data breaches and some make us raise our eyebrows and some truly affect us.

Yet another data breach was reported and this time it was Facebook(again!) The Facebook data breach was reported on April 3, 2021 wherein personal data of 533 million users was leaked online. These are some of the interesting facts about the data breach:

1. The data breach occurred because there was a software vulnerability that was exploited. This led the database to freely float on the Internet
2. It is a 20GB archive that has been freely floating via a torrent
3. Personal information such as phone number, Facebook ID, birthdates , current location, past location, relationship status was leaked
4. 3.2 crore users in the US, 1.1 crore users in the UK, and 60 lakh users in India were affected by the breach
5. Information relating to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other co-founders Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz were also leaked!
6. The interesting part was that Mark Zuckerburg’s leaked number showed that he was using Signal!
7. Information that may have been compromised might be used for social engineering and financial scams.

Would you like to know if you are affected by the breach?

You can visit Troy Hunt’s site

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

and enter your phone number or email address and check if your Facebook account was compromised. This site received a copy of the Facebook archive that was leaked.

This site also shows other places where your email address or phone number may have been compromised.

US users can also check if their Facebook account was hacked by entering their phone numbers into this site:

https://www.thenewseachday.com/private-facebook-phone-numbers-us

Since Facebook has a lot of personal information, even if you have a slight doubt your account may have been compromised, it is good change your password and use two factor authentication.

The previous post can be found here