Two weeks ago, Facebook experienced a data breach exposing 14 million user data, including Facebook access tokens. Security updates have been issued to prevent hackers from taking over your account. Use these online tools to check if your personal information has been leaked during the breach.
Earlier this month, Facebook reportedly got 50 million user data exposed in a security breach. Information hacked includes names, birthdays, email addresses, location, and phone numbers. The stolen information was later found posted online on a few websites used by most hackers.
Recent updates clarify that only 30 million people, not 50 million, had their Facebook access details stolen during the breach.
Facebook Data Breach 2021
PCmag reported that Facebook access tokens are digital keys used to keep your account logged in a device without password re-entry. Unfortunately, hackers have taken over these data and could use it to fool the Facebook system by logging into your account under your pre-saved profile.
The data exposed during this hack are:
- Birthdate
- Contact details
- Education
- Gender and current city
- hometown
- Relationship status
- Religion
- Work
- Username
- Device types used to access Facebook
- Last 10 places they checked into or were tagged in,
- Website, people, or Pages they follow
- 15 most recent searches accessed.
Some hackers also launched targeted attacks on users who own to co-admin a Page or Group. By exploiting software vulnerabilities on Facebook's "View As" features, hackers have stolen these page admin details and contents.
Check Now If Your Personal Information on FB Have Been Leaked!
This attack, fortunately, does not include Facebook's partner apps like Messenger, Messenger Kids, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Pages, payments, third-party apps, or advertising or developer accounts.
The Facebook Newsroom noted that they are cooperating with the FBI to investigate who might be behind these attacks.
Facebook is working to notify these 30 million people affected by sending them a customized message with specific detail on what has been accessed from their accounts. Facebook also put out a pinned announcement of the incident on their mobile application.
You could manually check if your account is affected by this attack by visiting the Facebook Help Center. To use this feature, head to their Help Center Website.
- Improve your notification settings and personal details with Account Settings
- It is recommended that you should also change your Login and Password to prevent further hacking attempts using your old data.
- Boost your Privacy Settings by blocking or unfriending any suspicious accounts
Also, keep an eye on these indicators that could imply your Facebook account is still under attack:
- A sudden post or message on your account that you did not remember making
- A change in your personal details like name, address, or profile picture
- New messages from strangers you never friended, and responses coming from your account.
- Suddenly being added on pages or groups, you did not remember applying on
If any of these indicators happens on your Facebook account, immediately notify the Help Center so they could re-evaluate your account security.