Latest Facebook Data Leak is a Reminder: Be Careful What You Share Online

• The data of 533 million Facebook users has been published on a low-level hacker forum.
• The information is believed to have been copied in 2019 or earlier from Facebook user pages and includes phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, birthdates, bios and email addresses.
• The leaked data could help cybercriminals commit different forms of phishing attacks and other social engineering-based identity scams.
• LinkedIn also recently suffered a similar attack, affecting over 500 million users and exposing user IDs, names, email addresses, phone numbers, professional titles and other work-related data.
• The LinkedIn and Facebook data leaks are a great reminder to be careful what you share online. Users willingly posted all of the information copied from LinkedIn and Facebook into cybercriminal markets. If you don’t want to see the data in a hacker forum, don’t post it online.
• To learn more, or if you believe you a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center toll-free by phone (888.400.5530) or live-chat. Just go to www.idtheftcenter.org to get started.

A recent Facebook data leak resulted in the personal data of more than 500 million users being copied (an often-legal process known as scraping) and later posted on a hacker forum. A similar attack happened with LinkedIn, leaving users to wonder what they could have done to prevent their personal information from being copied by data thieves. While the data was scraped from Facebook in 2019 because of a software flaw that the company says was patched the same year, the incident serves as a good reminder to be careful what you share online.

What Happened

According to Business Insider, a user in a low-level hacking forum scraped the phone numbers and personal data of 533 million Facebook users in 109 different countries – enough people to qualify as the third largest nation on Earth. The data file, published in a forum where identity information is bought and sold, includes more than 32 million records on users in the U.S. Information exposed in the Facebook data leak includes phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, birthdates, bios and email addresses.

What Does This Mean for You?

The scraped data from the LinkedIn and Facebook data leaks could help cybercriminals commit different forms of identity fraud, including phishing attacks and scams that require social engineering to convince you to give up even more personal information. Users should be on the lookout for phishing schemes or fraud using their own data.

Be Careful What You Share Online

While there is not a lot that Facebook and LinkedIn users can do to protect themselves from the latest incidents now, it is a great reminder to be careful what you share online to help prevent future identity fraud. The data thief did not gain access to the systems and steal private data. Instead, they copied (or scraped) information that people willingly posted on their own profiles and combined the information in a database that can be bought, sold or shared in criminal marketplaces.

If you post enough information about yourself online, hackers can connect the dots about your life, relatives and friends to commit identity fraud by pretending to be you. Be careful what you share online, including what you write in your posts and include in your profile. Also, check your privacy settings to ensure you are not sharing personal information with people you do not know or trust. A good rule of thumb is, “If you don’t want to see the data in a hacker forum, don’t post it online.”

Contact the ITRC

If you believe you were the victim of the latest Facebook data leak and want steps on how to protect yourself, or if you want to learn more about how to be careful what you share online, contact us. You can reach a contact advisor toll-free by phone (888.400.5530) or live-chat. You can find the latest resources on an array of identity-related topics. Just visit www.idtheftcenter.org to get started.