How-To: Was My Facebook Data Hacked?

 

Welcome back to,
"Has my Facebook data been hacked?"

But seriously, this is a pretty big problem.

This has been one of many issues Facebook has had. I'm not a fan of Facebook at all. 

The idea of keeping in contact with loved ones is a great idea. But not at the cost of your data and privacy.

But anyway.

How did this hack happen this time?

Encompassing approximately 20% of Facebook's subscribers, the data was allegedly obtained by exploiting a vulnerability Facebook advises they rectified in August 2019.

While this data dump appears to have sold in cybercrime communities at least since last year, a Telegram Bot that appeared on the scene earlier this January allowed users to look up a phone number and receive the corresponding user's Facebook ID, or vice versa for a fee.

But now, the data is publicly available for free.

  The primary value of the data is the association of phone numbers to identities; whilst each record included phone, only 2.5 million contained an email address. Most records contained names and genders with many also including dates of birth, location, relationship status and employer.

Also included in the leak are the phone numbers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and co-founders Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz, who are the fourth, fifth, and sixth members to have registered on Facebook.

Here's a number of user details available by country. From the seller's ad.

Rank	Profile Location	Exposed Users		Rank	Profile Location	Exposed Users
1	Egypt	44,823,547		55	Bahrain	1,450,124
2	Tunisia	39,526,412		56	Ireland	1,449,919
3	Italy	35,677,323		57	Finland	1,381,569
4	USA	32,315,282		58	Czech Republic	1,375,988
5	Saudi Arabia	28,804,686		59	Austria	1,249,388
6	France	19,848,559		60	Sweden	1,092,140
7	Turkey	19,638,821		61	Ghana	1,027,969
8	Morocco	18,939,198		62	Philippine	879,699
9	Colombia	17,957,908		63	Mauritius	848,558
10	Iraq	17,116,398		64	Taiwan	734,807
11	Africa	14,323,766		65	China	670,334
12	Mexico	13,330,561		66	Croatia	659,115
13	Malaysia	11,675,894		67	Denmark	639,841
14	United Kingdom	11,522,328		68	Greece	617,722
15	Algeria	11,505,898		69	Afghanistan	558,393
16	Spain	10,894,206		70	Albania	506,602
17	Russia	9,996,405		71	Norway	475,809
18	Sudan	9,464,772		72	Bulgaria	432,473
19	Nigeria	9,000,131		73	Japan	428,625
20	Peru	8,075,317		74	Macao	414,228
21	Brazil	8,064,916		75	Namibia	409,356
22	Australia	7,320,478		76	Jamaica	385,890
23	United Arab Emirates	6,978,927		77	Hungary	377,045
24	Syria	6,939,528		78	Ecuador	310,259
25	Chile	6,889,083		79	Iran	301,723
26	India	6,162,450		80	Botswana	240,606
27	Germany	6,054,423		81	Slovenia	229,039
28	Netherlands	5,430,388		82	Lithuania	220,160
29	Oman	5,048,532		83	Brunei	213,795
30	Yemen	4,617,359		84	Luxembourg	188,201
31	Kuwait	4,468,134		85	Serbia	162,898
32	Libya	4,204,514		86	Cyprus	152,321
33	Israel	3,956,428		87	Puerto Rico	130,586
34	Bangladesh	3,816,339		88	Indonesia	130,331
35	Canada	3,494,385		89	South Korea	121,744
36	Palestine	3,367,576		90	Malta	115,366
37	Kazakhstan	3,214,990		91	Azerbaijan	99,472
38	Belgium	3,183,584		92	Georgia	95,193
39	Jordan	3,105,988		93	Estonia	87,533
40	Singapore	3,073,009		94	Maldives	86,337
41	Bolivia	2,959,209		95	Angola	50,889
42	Hong Kong	2,937,841		96	Moldova	46,237
43	Poland	2,669,381		97	Iceland	31,343
44	Qatar	2,526,694		98	Turkmenistan	16,279
45	Argentina	2,347,553		99	Honduras	16,142
46	Portugal	2,277,361		100	Burundi	15,709
47	Cameroon	1,997,658		101	Haiti	15,407
48	Lebanon	1,829,661		102	Djibouti	14,327
49	Guatemala	1,645,068		103	Ethiopia	12,753
50	Tunisia	1,595,346		104	Burkina Faso	6,413
51	Switzerland	1,592,039		105	Fiji	5,364
52	Uruguay	1,509,317		106	El Salvador	4,779
53	Panama	1,502,310		107	Cambodia	2,838
54	Costa Rica	1,464,002

What can black hat hackers do with my data?

Threat actors (<-bad person) on the hacker forum can use it to conduct attacks on the people listed in the data leak. 

For example, threat actors can use email addresses for phishing attacks and mobile numbers for smishing (mobile text phishing) attacks. 

Threat actors can also use mobile numbers and leaked info to perform SIM swap attacks to steal multi-factor authentication codes sent via SMS.

It is advised that all Facebook users be wary of strange emails or texts requesting further information or telling you to click on enclosed links.

How do I find out if my data was exposed?

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

This is a great site to find if your account was hacked and what to do.

Also, report any phishing emails & text messages. Filtering out callers using your carriers spam filter app will also help.

Restrict the people who can have access to your account via your carrier's website to help prevent Sim swapping. 

And for heaven sake, DO NOT USE SMS FOR 2 FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

Use Authy or andOTP for 2FA codes.

I also advise that you remove any information on your profile like:

> Your Address
> Phone Numbers
> Hide email
> Hide your profile information from the public.

(or just deleting Facebook forever)