FB Data Leak

Facebook’s latest data breach exposes user data exceeding 500 million.

In April 2021, Alon Gal, a Chief Technology Officer, discovered that Facebook’s data had been leaked. The security breach exposes the data of over 533 million users. 

It is estimated that data from over 106 countries were exposed. Out of the 533 million records, it is estimated that 32 million were from U.S. residents. Around 11 million users from the UK and 6 million from India.

The leaked data includes personal identifying information such as the users’ full names, email addresses, locations, and phone numbers.

Alon Gal works for Hudson Rock, a cybercrime intelligence firm. He states that he found out about the data leakage when he saw Facebook’s user’s data posted on a hacking forum.

According to him, he found out about the data breach in January. A user has allegedly posted in a low-level hacking forum that it has a bot that can give out data from Facebook users given a fee. However, he found out that this month, the data is now freely accessible by anyone.

Data Validity

News websites have reported that the leaked data are authentic. They were able to cross-check and identify the users affected based on the data that was exposed.

A Facebook spokesperson has released a statement saying that the data is stale and adds that they were stolen due to a vulnerability that the company had already fixed in 2019.

However, Alon Gal believes that hackers can still take advantage of the confidential data that was leaked. 

The data can still be used to identify a person’s details and can also be used by hackers to scam individuals and impersonate their identity.

Facebook Accountability

Facebook has declared that it will investigate the issue to gain information about the parties involved in the data breach.

While the company can no longer save the data that has been exposed, Alon Gal asserts that Facebook should have notified their customers about the vulnerability and possible data breach when they discovered it, making them aware and more alert for potential scams that hackers can perform using their data.

Related Case

Multiple companies have been victims of security breaches in recent years. Statista reports that there are over 1,001 incidents of data breaches in the United States in 2020.

It is estimated the total number of data that was exposed is over 155 million.

In February 2021, Facebook settled a privacy lawsuit charged against them. The total settlement amount reached $650 million.

The lawsuit alleged that the company used its photos and data without the consent of its users.

Editor’s Note on Facebook Data Breach 2021:

This article is published to inform you of the latest 2021 data leak exposing millions of Facebook users’ data.

Case Name & No.: NA

Products/Services: Facebook data

Allegations: Facebook data leak exposes millions of confidential and personal identifying information

Status: NA

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Suggested Settlement: Yahoo Data Breach Settlement.