Data from a 2019 hack of Facebook Inc. was made public in recent days, revealing the phone numbers and personal information of more than a half-billion people.
While the data came from a vulnerability of Facebook platforms that the company says it has since fixed, security experts say that scammers could use the information for nefarious purposes like spam email and robocalling. Regulators in Europe have asked Facebook for more details about the data leak. Facebook said Tuesday in a blog post that the data leak reflects the ongoing need to police actions of bad actors on its platform.
Here is what you need to know.
How do I know if my information was in the leak?
Facebook hasn’t commented on whether it will notify users to check if their information was swept up in the incident. But some cybersecurity experts have created sites that allow people to see if their information was contained in data leaks.
One such site is haveibeenpwned.com, where you can enter your phone number or email address and see the result. The website, which allows people to check if their information was swept up in different data breaches, was created by Australian web-security consultant Troy Hunt.
