Facebook data breach: 509.5M accounts exposed
Severity: high · Patch status: no-fix-needed · Since 2021-04-04
In April 2021, a large data set of over 500 million Facebook users was made freely available for download. Encompassing approximately 20% of Facebook's subscribers, the data was allegedly obtained by exploiting a vulnerability Facebook advises they rectified in August 2019. The primary value of the data is the association of phone numbers to identities; whilst each record included phone, only 2.5 million contained an email address. Most records contained names and genders with many also including dates of birth, location, relationship status and employer. Exposed data: dates of birth, email addresses, employers, genders, geographic locations, names, phone numbers, relationship statuses. The breach dates from Aug 1, 2019; Have I Been Pwned loaded it on Apr 4, 2021.
What to do
- If you had a Facebook account, change its password and the password of any other account that reused it.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it is offered.
- Check whether your addresses are in this breach at https://haveibeenpwned.com.
- Expect targeted phishing that quotes the leaked details; verify any unexpected contact out of band.
Sources
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