Facebook Breach: Zuckerberg Karma & Your Stolen Cell #
The Facebook Breach Might Not Be What You’re Thinking
How many Facebook user records were just breached? The answer might surprise you.
Zero.
That’s right, the 533 million records that were “scraped” off in the recent-headline-grabbing Facebook breach actually disappeared from their website in 2018 and 2019. Not 2021.
It’s just that Facebook never told us. Never notified us per standard procedure. We found out when the data was posted to a free hacking forum on the dark web.
The breach compromised the personal data of more than half a billion Facebook users including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birth dates, bios and in some cases email addresses. Yes, that’s right, all of those spam calls you get on your mobile phone might be due to the Facebook breach. Even Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s cellphone number was part of the hack!
Although the data has been floating around for two years, the way the data was sorted and posted on a free hacking forum this week makes it far more accessible for criminals to exploit. And, although some data for the affected people may have changed in two years, it could still be of value to hackers and cyber criminals like those who engage in identify theft.
What to do?
- Never put your real phone number, address or birthdate into Facebook in the first place. Use a Google Voice number if you must.
- Change your password in Facebook regularly, even though you no longer have to on most sites.
- If you turn on two-step logins, don’t give your cell phone number, as it will be breached. Give the Google Voice number.
- See if you were included in this hack by entering your email into HaveIBeenPwned.com. Do you see Facebook there? I hope not.
- When you’ve had enough, delete your Facebook account.
John Sileo is a cybersecurity expert, privacy advocate, award-winning author and media personality as seen on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper and Fox & Friends. He keynotes conferences virtually and in person around the world. John is the CEO of The Sileo Group, a business think tank based in Colorado.
