Facebook users can now verify that their personal information – including names, phone numbers, gender, relationship status, current location, occupation, date of birth, and email addresses – was in the devastating leak shared online earlier this week. The personal data of more than 530 million Facebook users was discovered in the stolen data collection, which was collected as early as 2019. In connection with this, 530 million make up around 20 percent of Facebook’s total subscriber base.
Although the information was stolen from Facebook last year, it was sold privately between hackers online. While the stolen records were not publicly available at the time, cyber thieves apparently used the personal information to break into user accounts, steal payment details, and more. Over time, a treasure trove of this size is traded several times between criminals and loses value as it changes hands over and over again.
And now, more than two years after it was originally stolen and sold to the highest bidder, the records have been shared online for everyone to see. Given that most of us have had the same cell phone number and email address for many years, it’s a little worrying that so much personal information is now publicly available.
Fortunately, Have I Been Pwned is now using the stolen data posted for free on the hacker forum to activate it Facebook users are checking whether their records were included in the large-scale breach as early as 2019. Have I Been Pwned, created by noted security researcher Troy Hunt, is usually a way to find out if your password is in an online leak. Entering the password searches publicly available supplies of stolen passwords. If your data has been captured by hackers, you’ll need to change it.
People using the same email address and password combination for multiple online accounts are at greater risk because criminals can use stolen credentials from one website to log into another. So they can access your email, social media or worst of all, online banking portal.
MORE LIKE THAT
Facebook warning: why you may soon be forced to change your login
Have i been pwned has now been updated to allow users to search for both email addresses and phone numbers that were stolen from the most recent breach.
When searching for phone numbers, you will need to provide the country code for your current location. This is how the hackers saved the stolen data breach. So if you have a cell phone number in the United States, you must start your number with the country code 1. In the UK you need to use +44 before deleting the first 0 of your number – just like dialing the number from abroad.
With more than 500 million phone numbers stolen but only a few million email addresses, it’s worth checking for both on Have I Been Pwned. Just because your email address was leaked doesn’t mean your phone number did it, and vice versa.
If you were one of the unfortunate ones and your data was exposed in the leak, you need to be on high alert when it comes to phishing emails or SMS attacks attempting to steal more data.
These could be fraudulent links that try to trick you by asking you to sign in to a known service – such as Netflix, Apple ID, or a Google account – or giving a reason for entering payment details – an unforeseen fee for one missed delivery from the post to get a free month of Netflix and more.
As always, if you think you may have been a victim of a cyber attack, see Express.co.uk’s guide for next steps Here.
