Phone numbers and other personal data from over 500 million Facebook users has been leaked publicly online following a massive data breach.
A database containing the personal data of 533 million facebook users has been published online, leaking phone numbers, email addresses, and other personal data. The data actually traces back to an older breach using a vulnerability that Facebook reportedly fixed in 2019, but the entire database has now been posted online.
Over 11.5 million of the users in the breach were from the UK, and a further 1.5 million were from Ireland. The leaked data includes names, gender, facebook profile links, phone numbers, email addresses, and data mined from Facebook itself such as your location and relationship status.
RELATED: Facebook fined $5bn by US FTC for data protection breaches
Under the terms of GDPR legislation, Facebook could be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover. As Facebook's global revenue hit over £63 billion last year, the company may potentially face a massive roughly £2.5bn fine for the breach. This would be the biggest fine by far levied under GDPR, but doesn't match the $5 billion US (over £3.6 billion) fine previously issued to Facebook by the FTC.
To check whether you were part of the breach, you can enter your email address or phone number into the website "Have I Been Pwned?" The website is a trusted party in the cyber-security field that tracks major data breaches and allows you to check if your email address has been compromised. The site was updated to include phone number checks following the Facebook breach.
RELATED: Major global data breach: Check if your passwords are compromised
If your phone number is part of the breach, be aware that you might get an increase in scam calls and could be directly targeted more easily. A scammer will now be able to tell you details about yourself such as name and location to convince you that they are your bank, employer, or another trusted party.
Source: BleepingComputer
