530 million Facebook users exposed personal information

[이미지 출처= AFP연합뉴스]

[아시아경제 박병희 기자] A major foreign press reported on the 3rd (local time) that personal information, such as phone numbers of about 53 million Facebook users, was leaked on a hacking online bulletin board.

This personal information belongs to Facebook users in 106 countries around the world, including phone number, Facebook ID, name, place of residence, birthday, history, and email address.

Alan Galle, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Israeli cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, said the database appears to be identical to the Facebook phone numbers that have been circulating among hackers since January this year.

In a statement, Facebook said the data was “very old” and related to a security vulnerability that it fixed in August 2019.

Gal CTO warned that even years old data could be useful to cybercriminals who use personal information to pretend to be others or steal login information. He said that there is not much that Facebook can do in terms of security, as the information has already been leaked, but that Facebook can notify users to beware of potential phishing or scams.

In 2016, ahead of the US presidential election, British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytika collected data from 80 million Facebook users for political advertising, but it was revealed later that it became a big controversy.

Reporter Park Byung-hee [email protected]