1.2b social media users' data stolen in historic breach:
By CHRIS MELORE,
Over a billion Facebook users have had their private account information stolen in one of the largest data breaches in social media history.
A cybercriminal using the alias ByteBreaker claims to have scraped 1.2 billion Facebook records and is now selling the data on the dark web.
Scraping, or web scraping, involves using automated tools to collect large amounts of data from websites, similar to copying and pasting information at scale.
Cybersecurity researchers at Cybernews revealed that the stolen data includes names, user IDs, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, gender information, and location data such as city, state, and country.
Investigators say ByteBreaker exploited a flaw in a specific Facebook tool designed to let apps or programs access user data.
If verified, ByteBreaker’s trove would represent the largest single data-scraping incident from a social media platform to date.
Officials are urging all Facebook users to change their passwords, freeze their credit, and activate fraud alerts on their bank accounts.
They warn that the dataset scraped by ByteBreaker contains enough information for cybercriminals to open credit cards in victims’ names or access their financial accounts.
Internet security researchers revealed that names, user IDs, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, user gender information, and locations were taken in the breach
ByteBreaker shared a sample of 100,000 user records on the dark web to prove they have the data.
However, both Facebook and cybersecurity experts are questioning if the cyber thief actually has what they claim.
A spokesperson from Meta told Daily Mail that the stolen information ByteBreaker allegedly has is actually from a 2021 Facebook breach involving more than 500 million users.
'This is from 2021, so it's not a new claim. We disclosed this years ago and have taken steps to prevent similar incidents from happening,' Meta said in a statement Thursday.
According to researchers from Hackread, some of the data in the 100,000 user sample ByteBreaker posted on the dark web was from that 2021 breach, so it's possible the cybercriminal is trying to pass off old data as new.
Cyber experts added ByteBreaker claimed in their dark web ad that the 1.2 billion accounts were stored in '200 million rows.'
In databases, however, each 'row' represents one user's complete info (name, email, etc.).
So, 1.2 billion records should need 1.2 billion rows, not 200 million, adding even more skepticism to the hacker's story.
Facebook and cybersecurity experts are questioning whether the cyber thief actually collected 1.2 billion Facebook records or if the data breach is a lie
A cybercriminal going by the alias 'ByteBreaker' has claimed that they've scraped 1.2 billion Facebook records from the platform and is now selling the data on the dark web
It would surpass the 700 million LinkedIn scrape and the 533 million Facebook breach of 2021.
'Scraping data using features meant to help people violates our terms. We have teams across the company working to detect and stop these behaviors,' Meta wrote in a statement after the 2021 data breach.
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Meta told Daily Mail that their stance on this issue hasn't changed and the company firmly believes no new data has been taken from Facebook.
ByteBreaker claims that they collected the data by abusing Facebook's Application Programming Interface (API).
Facebook's API can allow an app to access user profiles to show their names or posts.
The hacker figured out a way to trick or overuse this API to collect massive amounts of user data without permission.
It's like finding a loophole in a library's computer system to download everyone's contact info instead of just borrowing a book.
Along with changing your email password and freezing your credit, consider updating your passwords for accounts that use the same email or phone number that may have been stolen from Facebook.
You can also enable two-factor authentication, which adds an extra step to logins, like a code sent to your phone or email, making it harder for hackers to access your account even if they have your password.
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