267 Million Facebook Accounts Exposed on Hacker Forum

Cybersecurity researcher Bob Diachenko, together with Comparitech, discovered an unsecured database containing the IDs, phone numbers, and names of 267 million Facebook users. The leak is believed to have resulted from unauthorized use of the Facebook API by cybercriminals from Vietnam.

Once in the hands of malicious actors, the compromised data can be used for targeted phishing campaigns and SMS spam. The database, which included Facebook user IDs, names, and phone numbers, was completely open on the internet. In other words, anyone could access it, as there was no password or any other form of authentication protecting it, according to the Comparitech report.

The exact number of records in the database was 267,140,436. Most of the affected users are based in the United States. Additionally, Diachenko found a note in Vietnamese within the database.

Experts discovered the leak on December 14, but it had already been indexed earlier, on December 4. Unfortunately, the contents of the database were published on a hacker forum on December 12.