What Really Caused Facebook's 500M-User Data Leak?
55 years ago

What Really Caused Facebook's 500M-User Data Leak?

Wired  

Since Saturday, a massive trove of Facebook data has circulated publicly, splashing information from roughly 533 million Facebook users across the internet. Or was it the 419 million Facebook user records, including hundreds of millions of phone numbers, names, and Facebook IDs, scraped from the social network by bad actors before a 2018 Facebook policy change, that were exposed publicly and reported by TechCrunch in September 2019? The information from more than 500 million Facebook users in more than 106 countries contains Facebook IDs, phone numbers, and other information about early Facebook users like Mark Zuckerburg and US secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as the European Union commissioner for data protection, Didier Reynders. But the CNET story refers to findings from a researcher who also contacted WIRED in May 2019 about a trove of Facebook data, including names and phone numbers. Facebook told TechCrunch at the time, “This data set is old and appears to have information obtained before we made changes last year to remove people’s ability to find others using their phone numbers.” Those changes were aimed at reducing the risk that Facebook's search and account-recovery tools could be exploited for mass scraping.

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History of this topic

Facebook owner hit with 251 million euros in fines for 2018 data breach
3 weeks, 2 days ago

Facebook owner hit with 251 million euros in fines for 2018 data breach

Associated Press  

LONDON — European Union privacy watchdogs hit Facebook owner Meta with fines totaling 251 million euros on Monday after an investigation into a 2018 data breach on the social media platform that exposed millions of accounts. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission issued the penalties after wrapping up its inquiry into the breach, when hackers gained access to user accounts by exploiting …

Facebook faces another user data leak, researchers reveal
7 months ago

Facebook faces another user data leak, researchers reveal

India TV News  

Cybersecurity researchers have reported an alleged data leak which involve at least one lakh users of Facebook which appeared on a data breach forum. The team from CyberPeace, a New Delhi-based non-profit organisation alleged that 1,00,000 lines of fresh user data from Facebook have surfaced on a data breach forum. “Facebook faces potential reputational damage due to concerns about data …

Twitter says no evidence new user data leaks were obtained via system bug
1 year, 11 months ago

Twitter says no evidence new user data leaks were obtained via system bug

The Hindu  

Twitter Inc said on Wednesday that there was no evidence that data recently being sold online was obtained by exploiting a vulnerability in the company's systems. Another 600 million pieces of user data "could not be correlated with the previously reported incident, nor with any new incident," Twitter said in a blog post. The social media company told users in …

Twitter Data Breach: Account Details Of 200 Million Users — Including Sundar Pichai, Donald Trump Jr. — Leaked
2 years ago

Twitter Data Breach: Account Details Of 200 Million Users — Including Sundar Pichai, Donald Trump Jr. — Leaked

ABP News  

Twitter appears to have been breached yet again. In the latest instance, a hacker calling himself StayMad has reportedly leaked the personal data of over 200 million users, including high profile accounts such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Donald Trump Jr., SpaceX, CBS Media, NBA, WHO, and more. Israeli cyber intelligence firm Hudson Rock called this one of the "most …

Data of 500 million WhatsApp users leaked online, breach hit 80 countries including Russia, Spain and India
2 years, 1 month ago

Data of 500 million WhatsApp users leaked online, breach hit 80 countries including Russia, Spain and India

Firstpost  

The leaked data, which includes data from Indian users as well, is being sold very cheaply. Data of over 500 million users from across the world, was leaked online and put up for sale on a number of hacking groups and communities by an anonymous seller. The cited source has shared a chart via its Twitter handle, which shows that …

India sought details of 62,754 user accounts from Facebook in second half of 2020
3 years, 7 months ago

India sought details of 62,754 user accounts from Facebook in second half of 2020

New Indian Express  

According to the company rules, legal process requests are sent by the law enforcement agent or emergency responder who is authorized to gather evidence in connection with an official investigation or in order to investigate an emergency involving the danger of serious physical injury or death. As per Facebook’s Transparency report, the Indian government made 2,435 emergency disclosure requests during …

Signal Ads Seemingly Banned by Facebook for Showing How it Exploits User Data
3 years, 8 months ago

Signal Ads Seemingly Banned by Facebook for Showing How it Exploits User Data

News 18  

That Facebook uses, and to a large extent exploits user data openly and widely to serve its commercial purposes is really to nobody’s surprise any longer. Facebook was not into that idea.” Facebook’s collected data includes details such as occupation, most streamed or read content, live GPS coordinates, sexual preference, religious beliefs, food allergies, shopping history and more. The series …

Facebook Email Search Could Leak Millions of Users' Details, But the Company Ignored it: Report
3 years, 8 months ago

Facebook Email Search Could Leak Millions of Users' Details, But the Company Ignored it: Report

News 18  

Facebook appears to have yet another security vulnerability to deal with, one which they apparently ignored and did not deem important enough to begin with. Furthermore, the Facebook Email Search v1.0 tool could apparently churn out searches of up to 5 million user accounts each day – hence suggesting the presence of such bulk data mining tools that exploit Facebook …

Explained | How Facebook’s recent data breach affect its users
3 years, 8 months ago

Explained | How Facebook’s recent data breach affect its users

The Hindu  

Facebook has suffered yet another data breach, only this time, private information from 533 million accounts have been leaked online. Even the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s private credentials are part of the larger leaked data set from 2019. Private information of users was primarily obtained by exploiting Facebook’s contact importer feature that allows users to find friends on …

Ireland launches inquiry into Facebook after reports of data leak
3 years, 8 months ago

Ireland launches inquiry into Facebook after reports of data leak

The Hindu  

Ireland's Data Protection Commission said on Wednesday it had launched an inquiry into Facebook Inc, after a dataset reported to contain personal data relating to some 533 million Facebook users worldwide was made public. Facebook said in a blog post last week that "malicious actors" had obtained the data prior to September 2019 by "scraping" profiles using a vulnerability in …

Personal data of 500 million LinkedIn users leaked online
3 years, 9 months ago

Personal data of 500 million LinkedIn users leaked online

India Today  

Only a couple of days ago, Facebook was involved in a massive data breach that compromised the personal data of 533 million users. As per reports, over 500 million LinkedIn users' data were compromised in a huge data leak. As per CyberNews, Linkedin has been a part of a massive data breach that has exposed crucial data of 500 million …

Facebook Data Leak: How to Check if Your Phone Number, Email Have Been Breached
3 years, 9 months ago

Facebook Data Leak: How to Check if Your Phone Number, Email Have Been Breached

News 18  

The Facebook data leak of 2021 has been one of the biggest of its kind, with data belonging to a staggering 533 million users being listed online across hacking forums. Now, noted cyber security researcher Troy Hunt, who has been hailed for his work with Have I Been Pwned, has updated the database of his website with entries of the …

Facebook data leak: Personal details of over 61 lakh Indians on sale by hackers
3 years, 9 months ago

Facebook data leak: Personal details of over 61 lakh Indians on sale by hackers

Op India  

A massive data dump of 533 million global Facebook users has been leaked and making rounds on hacker forums. As per the posts by threat actors who leaked the data, it contains user names, birthdays, phone numbers, users’ unique identifiers, emails, relationship statuses, occupation, account creation dates and more. Though he could not find data of anyone from his family, …

Facebook data leak includes personal info of 6 million users in India, the story so far
3 years, 9 months ago

Facebook data leak includes personal info of 6 million users in India, the story so far

India Today  

The latest Facebook data breach is claimed to have leaked the personal data of over 533 million users globally. In a country-wise breakup, the claimed data breach reportedly includes the personal information of 6 million users in India. Alon Gal, CTO of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, posted information around the data breach that is said to have leaked data …

Explained: Leaked Data of 533mn Facebook Users Reemerges Online, Why FB's Reply is Unconvincing
3 years, 9 months ago

Explained: Leaked Data of 533mn Facebook Users Reemerges Online, Why FB's Reply is Unconvincing

News 18  

Facebook is back in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, and this time, a new report claims that the personal data of over 533 million users have surfaced on a hacker forum, practically for free of cost. Both the Business Insider team and Gal reportedly reviewed a sample of the leaked data and verified several records by matching known …

Phone Numbers, Private Info of 500 Million Facebook Users Leaked, Company Says Issue Fixed in 2019
3 years, 9 months ago

Phone Numbers, Private Info of 500 Million Facebook Users Leaked, Company Says Issue Fixed in 2019

News 18  

A leaker says they are offering information on more than 500 million Facebook users – including phone numbers and other data – virtually for free. The database appears to be the same set of Facebook-linked telephone numbers that has been circulating in hacker circles since January and whose existence was first reported by tech publication Motherboard, according to Alon Gal, …

Facebook data on more than 500 million accounts found online
3 years, 9 months ago

Facebook data on more than 500 million accounts found online

The Hindu  

Details from more than 500 million Facebook users have been found available on a website for hackers. According to that publication, it has information from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses. In 2018, the social media giant disabled a feature that allowed users to search for one another via phone number following …

Facebook Data On More Than 500M Accounts Found Online
3 years, 9 months ago

Facebook Data On More Than 500M Accounts Found Online

News 18  

Details from more than 500 million Facebook users have been found available on a website for hackers. According to that publication, it has info from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, and email addresses. In 2018, the social media giant disabled a feature that allowed users to search for one another via phone number following …

An Instagram bug exposed users' personal data; Facebook says issue has now been patched
4 years ago

An Instagram bug exposed users' personal data; Facebook says issue has now been patched

Firstpost  

It was found that the attack also worked on accounts that users had kept private in their settings and in accounts that were set to not accept DMs from the public. While Instagram promises users when they sign up for the service that their email ID and birthday will not be publically visible, security researcher Saugat Pokharel, recently discovered a …

Facebook Had a Bug That Exposed Instagram Users' Personal Email ID and Birthday, Researcher Claims
4 years ago

Facebook Had a Bug That Exposed Instagram Users' Personal Email ID and Birthday, Researcher Claims

News 18  

Facebook-owned Instagram was hit by a bug that reportedly revealed users’ private information such as email ID and birthday. According to The Verge citing security researcher Saugat Pokharel, the bug was exploitable by Facebook business accounts that were given access to an experimental feature that Instagram was testing. The report adds that bad actors, in this case, could leverage the …

Facebook Says Indian Govt Asked for Data of 57,294 Accounts in the First Half of 2020
4 years, 1 month ago

Facebook Says Indian Govt Asked for Data of 57,294 Accounts in the First Half of 2020

News 18  

Government requests for Facebook user data increased 23 percent globally in January-June 2020 with India occupying the second spot after the US in terms of such requests being made. In the first six months of 2020, government requests for user data increased by 23 percent to 1,73,592 globally from 1,40,875 in the second half of 2019. The highest number of …

Facebook — The beleaguered king of social media
4 years, 4 months ago

Facebook — The beleaguered king of social media

The Hindu  

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal spoke of a political problem in Facebook’s India operations that hit home hard. Editorial | Data power: On Facebook and BJP India, as the biggest market for the company’s eponymous social media platform and its messaging utility WhatsApp, is widely exposed to the data-sucking machines that operate behind the friendly facades of …

235 Million Instagram, YouTube users' data exposed in a new data breach: Know details
4 years, 4 months ago

235 Million Instagram, YouTube users' data exposed in a new data breach: Know details

India TV News  

As part of a recent data breach, millions of users' social media data including popular names such as Instagram, YouTube, and even TikTok got exposed. Read on to know more about the new data breach that has affected 235 million users. Instagram, YouTube data leaked It is suggested that the database comprised web scrapped data of users by a now-shut …

Facebook acknowledges that it shared data of some inactive users with third-party apps, says the issue has now been fixed
4 years, 6 months ago

Facebook acknowledges that it shared data of some inactive users with third-party apps, says the issue has now been fixed

Firstpost  

Facebook says that from the past several months, approximately 5,000 developers continued to receive user data even after they were inactive for over 90 days. Facebook says that from the past several months, approximately 5,000 third-party app developers continued to receive the data that people had previously authorised, even after they were inactive on Facebook for over 90 days. Facebook …

Huge, mysterious list appears online of where people met, personal information and more of tens of millions
4 years, 7 months ago

Huge, mysterious list appears online of where people met, personal information and more of tens of millions

The Independent  

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A huge data dump includes the personal information of tens of millions of …

India’s request for Facebook user data second only to U.S.
4 years, 7 months ago

India’s request for Facebook user data second only to U.S.

The Hindu  

The number of user data requests from the Indian government to Facebook increased 28% during the six month period from July-December 2019 at 26,698 queries — the second highest globally, according to the latest Transparency Report by the U.S.-based social media network. Of the total volume, the U.S. with 51,121 requests continues to submit the largest number of requests, followed …

A 14-Year ‘Timeline’: Facebook’s Roller-Coaster India Journey
4 years, 8 months ago

A 14-Year ‘Timeline’: Facebook’s Roller-Coaster India Journey

The Quint  

Cambridge Analytica was perhaps the biggest data breach scandal to hit the social media giant and one that was intricately linked to the alleged interference into the 2016 US presidential elections. Cambridge Analytica harvested the personal data of millions of people's Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising. Facebook admitted that personal data of 5 lakh …

Facebook investigating data breach where names, phone numbers of over 267 million users was reportedly exposed
5 years ago

Facebook investigating data breach where names, phone numbers of over 267 million users was reportedly exposed

Firstpost  

The database was apparently made available for download last week on an online hacker forum that apparently belonged to a crime group. Facebook on Thursday said it is investigating a report that a database containing names and phone numbers of more than 267 million users was exposed online. Comparitech said that security researcher Bob Diachenko spotted the database, which was …

Facebook and Twitter: 'Personal data of hundreds of users may have been improperly accessed'
5 years, 1 month ago

Facebook and Twitter: 'Personal data of hundreds of users may have been improperly accessed'

Daily Mail  

Facebook and Twitter have confirmed that the personal data of hundreds of their users may have been 'improperly accessed' by third-party apps. The security breach has reportedly affected Android users who accessed the Giant Square and Photofy apps via their social media accounts. Facebook and Twitter have confirmed that the personal data of hundreds of their users may have been …

India’s requests for Facebook user data increases by 37%, second only to U.S.
5 years, 1 month ago

India’s requests for Facebook user data increases by 37%, second only to U.S.

The Hindu  

The Indian government’s requests for user data from Facebook increased nearly 37% in the first half of 2019, and at 22,684 queries, was the second highest globally, according to the Transparency Report of the U.S.-based social networking site. The US government submitted the maximum number of 50,714 requests for details of 82,461 Facebook users/accounts during the first half of the …

Documents show how Facebook harnessed user data
5 years, 2 months ago

Documents show how Facebook harnessed user data

The Hindu  

Leaked documents from a civil suit against Facebook show how the social network aimed to employ user data as a tool for bargaining and to manipulate competitors, NBC News reported on Wednesday. Some 7,000 pages of documents reveal how Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and his team harnessed users’ personal information to reward partners by giving them preferential data, while depriving …

Facebook used user data as a weapon against rivals, offered it up as a sop to friends: Report
5 years, 2 months ago

Facebook used user data as a weapon against rivals, offered it up as a sop to friends: Report

Firstpost  

A trove of 7,000 pages of leaked documents shows exactly how Facebook leveraged user data against rivals. The documents were originally obtained by NBC from British investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, which shows how Facebook would reward favoured companies by giving them greater access to user data. The documents also highlighted that when a messaging app became popular and threatened Facebook’s …

Facebook suspends thousands of apps over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal
5 years, 3 months ago

Facebook suspends thousands of apps over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal

Firstpost  

The suspended apps are associated with about 400 developers, Facebook said Facebook Inc said on Friday it has suspended tens of thousands of apps on the social networking platform, as part of the company’s ongoing app developer investigation it began on March 2018 in response to the Cambridge Analytica row. The suspended apps are associated with about 400 developers, Facebook …

Indian-origin researcher finds 419mn Facebook users' exposed data
5 years, 4 months ago

Indian-origin researcher finds 419mn Facebook users' exposed data

The Quint  

San Francisco, Sep 5 Sanyam Jain, a security researcher and member at Hague-based non-profit organisation GDI Foundation, has discovered a massive database containing over 419 million phone numbers of Facebook users on an unsecured server which were available for anyone to access. The database included 133 million records of US-based Facebook users, 18 million records of UK users and more …

400 million Facebook users' phone numbers LEAKED in privacy lapse
5 years, 4 months ago

400 million Facebook users' phone numbers LEAKED in privacy lapse

India TV News  

Phone numbers of as many as 400 million Facebook users have been leaked, news agency AFP quoted the US media as saying. According to technology news site TechCruch, an exposed server stored 419 million records on users across several databases - including 133 million US accounts, more than 50 million in Vietnam, and 18 million in Britain. Facebook user IDs …

Facebook warned staff, not users about the known risks before 2018 breach
5 years, 4 months ago

Facebook warned staff, not users about the known risks before 2018 breach

India Today  

The year 2018 brought a series of bad news for Facebook. Now, almost a year later new details about a bug that affected the accounts of nearly 50 million Facebook users have surfaced online. Facebook users are suing the world's largest social media company on the grounds that it failed to warn its users about the known risks pertaining to …

Twitter apologises and admits to user data leak
5 years, 5 months ago

Twitter apologises and admits to user data leak

India TV News  

Twitter admits to inadvertently sharing users data with advertising and third-party partners, owing to the breach and identify privacy flaw and regretting the outcome. As per Twitter's blog post posted on Tuesday, the user information that could have been shared without permission could include country code and details of users engagement with ad and information about the ad. Also, read: …

Are Facebook users better off after its $5 billion fine?
5 years, 5 months ago

Are Facebook users better off after its $5 billion fine?

Associated Press  

If you’re one of Facebook’s more than 2 billion users, are you any better off now than you were before the Federal Trade Commission imposed new privacy restrictions and a $5 billion fine on the company this week? There’s no easy advice to give individuals about any switch they can flip to make the privacy risks go away.” Richardson said …

$5 billion fine doesn’t mark the end of Facebook’s troubles
5 years, 5 months ago

$5 billion fine doesn’t mark the end of Facebook’s troubles

Associated Press  

Facebook will pay a $5 billion fine for privacy violations and will be subject to broader oversight, but ongoing probes in Europe and the U.S. could present even bigger headaches for the company. — U.S. Federal Trade Commission Though the privacy matter is settled, Facebook disclosed Wednesday that the FTC is investigating the company separately for antitrust issues. — Irish …

Facebook caught sharing private user data with telecom companies, phone makers: Report
5 years, 7 months ago

Facebook caught sharing private user data with telecom companies, phone makers: Report

Firstpost  

Facebook’s apps harvest and package eight different categories of information for use by 100 companies. The social media giant has been found to be offering private data of users to 100 different telecom companies and phone makers in 50 countries without their knowledge or consent. All this is allegedly being done through a corporate data-sharing programme announced by Facebook last …

Facebook leak of millions of user passwords investigated by Irish privacy regulator
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook leak of millions of user passwords investigated by Irish privacy regulator

Firstpost  

With ten investigation open in Europe, Irish commission opens yet another one against Facebook. Ireland’s privacy regulator says it’s investigating Facebook over the social media giant’s recent revelation that it had left hundreds of millions of user passwords exposed. The company said last month that it had inadvertently stored passwords for users of Facebook, Facebook Lite and Instagram in plain …

Facebook being investigated for unauthorised storage of up to 1.5 million email IDs
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook being investigated for unauthorised storage of up to 1.5 million email IDs

Firstpost  

Facebook said it may have “unintentionally uploaded” email contacts of up to 1.5 million new users New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Thursday she is investigating Facebook Inc’s unauthorised storage of up to 1.5 million Facebook users’ email contact databases, the latest privacy issue to affect the U.S. social media giant. Last week, Facebook said it may have …

Facebook investigated in Ireland over mishandled passwords
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook investigated in Ireland over mishandled passwords

CNN  

London CNN Business — Ireland’s data regulator has opened an investigation into Facebook for mishandling the passwords for hundreds of millions of its users. The probe announced Thursday by the Irish Data Protection Commission is the latest in a series of privacy and data investigations targeting Facebook, and could result in billions of dollars in penalties. The Irish regulator, which …

Facebook exposed millions of Instagram passwords
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook exposed millions of Instagram passwords

The Quint  

San Francisco, April 19 A day after admitting it "unintentionally" uploaded emails of nearly 1.5 million of new users, Facebook has now revealed that millions of Instagram passwords were stored on its servers in a readable format. Last month, Facebook said that it fixed a security issue wherein millions of its users' passwords were stored in plain text and "readable" …

Facebook says it ‘unintentionally uploaded’ email contacts of 1.5 mn users on its site
5 years, 8 months ago

Facebook says it ‘unintentionally uploaded’ email contacts of 1.5 mn users on its site

Firstpost  

The underlying glitch has been fixed, according to a statement issued by Facebook. Facebook has stated that it may have “unintentionally uploaded” email contacts of 1.5 million new users since May 2016, in what seems to be the latest privacy-related issue faced by the social media company. There were cases in which email contacts of people were uploaded to Facebook …

Facebook removes exposed user data, associated with two apps, stored on Amazon servers
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook removes exposed user data, associated with two apps, stored on Amazon servers

Firstpost  

Cultura Colectiva said all of its Facebook records came from user interactions with its three pages on Facebook Facebook Inc said on Wednesday that it removed public databases containing its user data on Amazon.com Inc’s cloud servers after cybersecurity firm UpGuard discovered millions of exposed records. UpGuard’s Cyber Risk team announced in a blog post on Wednesday that Mexico City-based …

Facebook removes over 540 million exposed user records stored on Amazon's servers
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook removes over 540 million exposed user records stored on Amazon's servers

India Today  

Facebook is in soup - again. Just last month, it was reported that Account passwords of nearly 600 million Facebook users, that were stored in plain text, were accessible by over 20,000 Facebook employees. And now nearly two weeks later, a smilar report suggesting that millions records of Facebook users were exposed on Amazon's servers. According to a Bloomberg report, …

Facebook fixes glitch that exposed millions of user passwords to employees
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook fixes glitch that exposed millions of user passwords to employees

Live Mint  

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it has resolved a glitch that exposed passwords of millions of users stored in readable format within its internal systems to its employees. The passwords were accessible to as many as 20,000 Facebook employees and dated back as early as 2012, cyber security blog KrebsOnSecurity, which first reported in the issue, said in its report. …

Facebook staff had access to hundreds of millions of people’s passwords
5 years, 9 months ago

Facebook staff had access to hundreds of millions of people’s passwords

CNN  

New York CNN Business — Facebook is back with another mea culpa. This time, the company acknowledges that it mishandled sensitive passwords for hundreds of millions of its users, primarily those who use its Facebook Lite product. On Thursday, Facebook said it didn’t properly mask the passwords of hundreds of millions of its users and stored them as plain text …

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