A cybercrime expert said the huge dump of leaked personal information from the Big tech giant could be used by criminals to scam internet users into revealing their login details or to commit identity theft.
Personal details including phone numbers of 533 million Facebook users have been leaked and posted on a “low-level” online hacking forum.
The latest data privacy leak from a Big Tech firm affected users from 106 countries, including 32 million in the US, 11 million in the UK and 6 million in India. Data leaked included phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, dates of birth, profile biographies, and in some instances their email addresses.
Alon Gal, chief technical officer of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock which detected the leak on Saturday, told the Business Insider the information could be used by online fraudsters for identity theft or phishing scams.
User confidence in Facebook and its empire of social media sites and apps is already low. In January millions ditched mobile phone app WhatsApp for its Russian-developed rival Telegram over new terms and conditions under which users had to agree to their data being shared with Facebook to help it sell targeted advertising.
Facebook had yet to issue a statement on the leak.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
