A research data revealed by Britain-based tech research firm Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko claimed that a database containing personal details of more than 267 million Facebook users was allegedly left exposed on the web.
Data — including Facebook user IDs, phone numbers and names — is most likely the result of an illegal scraping operation or Facebook API abuse by criminals in Vietnam. “Scraping” is a term used to describe a process in which automated bots quickly sift through large numbers of web pages, copying data from each one into a database.
The information contained in the database could be used to conduct large-scale SMS spam and phishing campaigns, among other threats to end users. The most of the affected users were from the US.
Facebook informed that the company is investigating the issue.
This isn’t the first time such a database has been exposed. In September 2019, 419 million records across several databases were exposed, including phone numbers and Facebook IDs.
Post Your Comments