During the past few days, information has been revealed about the leakage of personal data of hundreds of millions of Facebook users around the world via the Internet.
More specifically, over 533 million accounts from 106 countries have been found containing phone numbers, full names, websites, email addresses, and other sensitive information publicly posted on a piracy forum.
And according to Insider, the recent Facebook hack adds to more than 4 billion records online that have been stolen or accidentally leaked in the past ten years, according to data from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
A Facebook spokesperson said on Twitter that "this is old data that was previously reported in 2019. This problem was discovered and fixed in August 2019."
And for those who may still have the same full name, date of birth, mobile phone number, physical address, or email address we used in 2019 these leaked data is still sensitive, here's how to tell if your details are among the leaked information.
Step 1: How do you know that you are a hacker?
Checking to see if you are affected is very simple. Just visit the Have I Been Pwned site and enter your email address.
Just click "pwned" next to the search bar, if your account is not compromised you will get a green page that says "good news", with tips for how to increase security.
If your account details are leaked, you will see a red screen saying "Oh No", and it tells you how many data breaches were found for the same email and if it was "pasted" on another website.
The site is a project by security researcher Troy Hunt, and it's dedicated to alerting people to whether their personal details have been leaked in any of the major security breaches documented, including the recent Facebook incident.
If your email address (and the account associated with it) is leaked in any of the breaches, the site will let you know which specific violation is involved and which site or service was affected.
The second step: avoid leaks
If you find yourself a victim of this recent breach on Facebook or any other hack, it is recommended that you change your passwords on the affected account and any other account associated with the email address.
For added security, a password manager service can be useful in creating particularly strong, unique, and unlikely-to-guess passwords, as well as storing them securely.
Whether or not your details appear in the search tool above, it is recommended that you practice strong online security measures in both cases, by creating 2FA in any online service that does this, ensuring that you will need to be screened. The second security (such as a message sent to your phone) in order to access your account or change your details.