Holes In Your Facebook Wall

The latest Facebook data breach, which reportedly compromised the personal data of over 533 million users, including 6.1 million Indians, has once again focused attention on the social media behemoth’s apparent laxity in protecting the privacy of its users and, more importantly, lack of accountability towards them.

- Kaushik Deka

In January, Alon Gal, chief technology officer at cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, discovered the leaked data when a user in a hacking forum advertised an automated bot that could provide phone numbers for hundreds of millions of Facebook users for a price. Now, the entire dataset, which includes details like phone number, Facebook ID, name, location, email ID, relationship status and bio, has been posted on the hacking forum for free.

Security researchers have warned that with the leaked data in the public domain, cybercriminals can use it for email or SMS spam, robocalls, extortion attempts, threats and harassment. “Bad actors will certainly use the information for social engineering, scamming, hacking and marketing,” said Gal in a tweet.