On April 2021, CTO of cyber intelligence firm Hudson Rock, Alon Gal, revealed that Facebook data had breached five hundred and thirty-three million users’ data. She was able to figure this out when someone from her team noticed something fishy going on. A telegram bot was selling off millions of phone numbers for free. Soon enough, email IDs, users location and their personal information was leaked.
Surprisingly, even Mark Zuckerberg’s phone number was leaked, but tech experts discovered that the Facebook founder is not using the social networking site himself. Instead, he is using Signal, which is much safer and keeps his privacy intact. Furthermore, from the millions of phone numbers freely floating, it was noticed that they were active numbers of different countries.
Some thirty-two million numbers were breached from the United Kingdom alone, eleven million from the States, and over six million from the Indian subcontinent.
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Can You Find If Your Phone Number Was Leaked Too?
If you have a Facebook account or had till 2019, it is good to find out if your email ID and the phone are floating out there in public. Unfortunately, without accessing the darknet, you cannot find out for real if it’s leaked or not. However, some sites like Have I been pawned? And Safe Me by Lucideus Tech allows you to know if your details have been breached on any site apart from Facebook.
To find out through Have I Been Pawned? Go to the official website, enter your email ID or phone number (international), and tap Have I been Pawned? Automatically results will generate and give you the output. If your phone number or the email ID is not breached, it will say Not pawned, and if it is, it will show your details as pawned and show you the websites that breached your data.
Dominoes India has been tracked as breaching data a few years ago. When the results came out, the company acknowledged its crime. However, it looks like it did nothing to rectify their mistake and continues to do the same.
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How Can You Save Your Data In Case It Was Breached?
You must take immediate steps to make your data secure. Using a VPN will save your life as in today’s date; it is the best way to protect your network. Secondly, change your password every few weeks or months. Keeping a strong and complicated password will make it difficult for hackers to break into your system. Thirdly, take help from cybercrime officers.Â
Conclusion
We never know what someone can do with our email ID and phone number. It may look harmless and only for the sake of earning money, but our neglect can backfire. Cybercriminals and hackers across the world can manipulate our information and take advantage of the lack of security.
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