Phone Numbers For 533 Million Facebook Users Were Being Sold On Telegram (theverge.com) 35
Slashdot reader DevNull127 writes: This week a security researcher discovered a bot on Telegram that sold the phone numbers of Facebook users for $20 apiece. "The security researcher who found this vulnerability, Alon Gal, says that the person who runs the bot claims to have the information of 533 million users, which came from a Facebook vulnerability that was patched in 2019," reported the Verge. Motherboard reported the bot was also offering "bulk" pricing, selling 10,000 phone numbers for $5,000.
Telegram told the New York Post that they'd blocked the bot Tuesday morning, while Facebook downplayed the incident, reminding the Post "This is old data." But the Post notes that Facebook already had more than 1.6 billion daily active users in September 2019, and security researcher Alon Gal posted a count of the millions of affected users in each country, finding 32,315,282 in America, 11,522,328 in the United Kingdom, 7,320,478 in Australia, and 3,494,385 in Canada.
But the Verge points out the most ominous message of the breach: that ""the data is still out there on the web" — and that it's already resurfaced, more than once, in the days since it was initially scraped.
Telegram told the New York Post that they'd blocked the bot Tuesday morning, while Facebook downplayed the incident, reminding the Post "This is old data." But the Post notes that Facebook already had more than 1.6 billion daily active users in September 2019, and security researcher Alon Gal posted a count of the millions of affected users in each country, finding 32,315,282 in America, 11,522,328 in the United Kingdom, 7,320,478 in Australia, and 3,494,385 in Canada.
But the Verge points out the most ominous message of the breach: that ""the data is still out there on the web" — and that it's already resurfaced, more than once, in the days since it was initially scraped.
Old Data (Score:5, Insightful)
> "This is old data."
Yeah, we've all changed our phone numbers since 2019.
Re: (Score:2)
Facebook knows from experience that it doesn't really need to explain itself - it only needs to say something which distracts its members just long enough for the next cat video or animated gif to show up in their feeds.
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People stupid enough to go on Facebook, give their real name and phone-number are falling for every trick in the book.
I don't have Facebook, but that's because I'm lucky. I can get a job without it. Lots of jobs nowadays go by on Facebook only and for some people that means that's pretty much their best and sometimes only chance. All the social media sites, nowadays, force you to validate your phone number "for security". Until the practice is banned via regulation or we decide to give people universal basic income, quite a number of people will have to give Facebook their phone number just to survive.
Just to be clear; thi
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FB doesn't require a phone number. I've been on it for years, and simply refuse to give that info.
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Years ago, I entered mine with a Canadian area code &"-"& 867-5309. Once in a while, Facebook wants to validate it. Let them try.
I can get a phone-book for free. (Score:2)
At least in the phone-book, there are also young people. :-)
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Actually, you can't. They stopped publishing "the white pages" 20+ years ago.
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They still send phone books out here every year, and they still have white pages. I suppose it's only a matter of time before they stop, I mean we do have access to the same information online, and many folks have dropped land lines in favor of cell phones only, and they don't publish cell phone numbers in the phone book here. (not sure if that's a thing anywhere)
Re: I can get a phone-book for free. (Score:2)
Fewer and fewer people are getting traditional landlines as time goes on, so eventually the white pages will disappear just because it isn't cost effective.
Re: I can get a phone-book for free. (Score:2)
Physical whitepages that is. You would still be able to get them online, behind a paywall, with a healthy dose of Javashit telemetry and "UpGrAdE tO fInD oUt tHiS pErSoN's cRiMiNaL hIsToRy!!1!" overlay popups.
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Actually, you can't. They stopped publishing "the white pages" 20+ years ago.
Huh? No. We were still getting it every year in our suburban Washington DC home until we moved away just over a year ago.
Yet no notification of the breach from FB to users (Score:2, Interesting)
Literally, none whatsoever.
Any they wonder why people don't trust them.
1) losing data. ,etc.
2) not telling users about it, downplay, etc
sueballs.
Why? (Score:2)
Why would anyone put their phone number on Facebook? That's one of those optional things, like your school and your political beliefs.
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Seems like they caught cell numbers being used for 2-factor auth.
Canada (Score:2)
Canada/Population (2019): 37.59 million
So basically nearly 10% of the Canadian population, eh?
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Actually, the average person has about 3 numbers, one each for home, work, and cell. So, divide that by 3.
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Actually, the average person has about 3 numbers, one each for home, work, and cell. So, divide that by 3.
The summary says quantities are measured in "users" while the OP was measuring in "numbers". I can only assume that this is a metric vs imperial thing.
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Phone Numbers? (Score:4, Insightful)
What if I told you of a time before the internet where the phone companies gave away books with all of people's personal information including Name, address, and phone number. Anyone could see any and all of them at any time!!
Then the internet came along and you could look at any phone book anywhere in the world!!!
What fucking moron would pay $5,000 for 10k phone numbers? And why would they pay for any of them?
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I remember the pride I had when I first had my own home and my name in the phone book - not that anyone ever called me... Even back in the nineties, when I had to visit customers I could stop at a phone box, find their entry, and get not just their phone number, but also their street address. Nowadays we're all protecting out anonymity; no wonder some people feel cut-off.
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I remember the pride I had when I first had my own home and my name in the phone book
Navin R. Johnson approves of this comment.
Re: Sad but true. (Score:2)
"There should be a national register of anyone on Facebook so others in the community can be aware to avoid this idiots"
Yeah, grandma who uses FB to keep in contact with her grandkids should just be thrown into the darkest corner of the most rotten nursing home imaginable and slammed with the idiot/leper label and forgotten ::sigh::
Why do people post such moronic comments like this? Does it make them feel "cool"? :-\
"old" (Score:2)
This is old data."
How often do you change your phone number, Mark?
It may be old, but that doesn't mean it has changed.
Is this why... (Score:2)
Iâ(TM)m getting so many calls for car warranties?
Not my # (Score:2)
I rarely give a phone number to a company if at all possible and Facebook is a company I don't trust
fb is the worst (Score:1)
Reason #65,536 (Score:2)
Keep using facebook... (Score:1)
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I will, and they've never had my phone number. Not that it couldn't be found elsewhere, just like yours.
Why pay for the list? lots of cell phone numbers (Score:2)
This may be a much bigger deal than some posting here realize. What is the likelihood people shared their listed land-line phone number with Facebook?
A rising number of people have gone all-in with cell phone service, dropping the traditional, and often listed, land-line. Cells are still much less likely to be listed, and,
in a bid to keep phone information close, many set their cells to private mode, to prevent number harvesting by call-display on the receiving end.
But, the rise in two-factor authenication