A hacking forum recently published over 553 million personal data of Facebook users. The type of exposed data ranged from phone numbers, Facebook ID's, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and in some cases - email addresses.
Alan Gal, CTO of Hudson Rock, was the person who first discovered the data leak over the weekend. "A database of that size containing the private information such as phone numbers of a lot of Facebook's users would certainly lead to bad actors taking advantage of the data to perform social engineering attacks [or] hacking attempts," Gal said in a statement.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time personal information has been leaked of Facebook users. In 2019, the Facebook vulnerability exposed millions of users' phone numbers that was pulled from Facebook's servers that were in violation of the terms of service.
There's not much Facebook can do because users are trusting Facebook with their data, and it's up to Facebook to treat users' data with care and sensitivity. Facebook should, however, notify users if there is a potential breach.
These types of data breaches should have a takeaway that your organization needs to be vigilant of any suspicious activity at all times. New-school security awareness training is of the utmost importance for make sure your users know how to respond to a potential scam.
Business Insider has the full story.
New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn't a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilize users as your last line of defense. Request your one-on-one demo of KnowBe4's security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be!
