Facebook data of 533 millions people has been leaked | Technoiable

Facebook data breach is hitting the headlines once again and it impacts roughly 533 million users. The data leak was first reported in January 2021 by Alon Gal, CTO of cyber intelligence firm Hudson Rock. At the time, Gal had highlighted how a Telegram bot was being used to sell phone numbers for free. In the latest reports, a lot more user information appears to be available including email ID, full names, locations, birthdates, etc. Hackers have put up the information for sale.

Among the breached accounts, records for over 33 million accounts in the United States, 11 million in the United Kingdom, and 7 million in India could have been compromised, according to reports. It also looks like the details of Mark Zuckerberg have leaked online thanks to this data breach.

Zuckerberg is also using the Signal app. The secure messaging app had recently gained a number of followers after WhatsApp announced changes to its privacy policy and a closer inter-linking with its parent Facebook.

How to find out if your account was affected by the breach

There is no way of knowing if your account data from Facebook is up for grabs unless you actually get access to this data via the darknet. However, there are serves to check if your email ID has been part of any data breaches, and given how many take place, it is likely.

‘Have I been pwned’ is a free-to-use web tool that will let users know if their email id has been affected by any data breach? To use the tool simply following the following steps.

Step 1: Open any browser on your phone, tablet or laptop and go to ‘https://haveibeenpwned.com/’. You can also quickly search for Have I been pwned via Google or any other search engine to quickly find the site.

Step 2: In the search bar on the website, enter the email ID that is linked to your Facebook account. Once done, press the ‘pwned?’ button on the right.

The website will let you know if your account was compromised in any data breach. If your account was compromised, it is a good idea to quickly change your password and other security details. If not, you are safe for now, but it is a good idea to regularly change your password and keep an eye on privacy measures to stay safe.