• About Us
  • Copyright Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Authors
  • Career
  • Contact Us
Assamese |   Bengali |  
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
NORTHEAST NOW
  • HOME
  • NORTH EAST
    • Assam
    • Meghalaya
    • Tripura
    • Mizoram
    • Manipur
    • Nagaland
    • Arunachal
    • Sikkim
  • Neighbours
    • Nepal
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • Myanmar
    • Bangladesh
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Environment
  • Citizen Journalists
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NORTH EAST
    • Assam
    • Meghalaya
    • Tripura
    • Mizoram
    • Manipur
    • Nagaland
    • Arunachal
    • Sikkim
  • Neighbours
    • Nepal
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • Myanmar
    • Bangladesh
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Environment
  • Citizen Journalists
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
NORTHEAST NOW
Assamese
Home Top News

500 million Facebook users’ phone numbers on sale through Telegram bot!

NE NOW NEWS by NE NOW NEWS
GUWAHATI , January 26, 2021 4:37 pm
facebook security

Representative photo. Image credit - techweez.com

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A security researcher has claimed that the mobile phone numbers of over 500 million Facebook users are being sold through a Telegram bot.

According to the security researcher, the information was leaked due to a vulnerability found in Facebook in 2019.

Alon Gal, a security researcher, on his Twitter handle recently said a user created a Telegram bot that allowed users to access the database carrying the numbers of millions of Facebook users.

Stating that the user’s act has a huge impact on the privacy of Facebook users, Gal tweeted, “Few days ago a user created a Telegram bot allowing users to query the database for a low fee, enabling people to find the phone numbers linked to a very large portion of Facebook accounts. This obviously has a huge impact on privacy.”

He further revealed, “In early 2020 a vulnerability that enabled seeing the phone number linked to every Facebook account was exploited, creating a database containing the information 533m users across all countries. It was severely under-reported and today the database became much more worrisome.”

In early 2020 a vulnerability that enabled seeing the phone number linked to every Facebook account was exploited, creating a database containing the information 533m users across all countries.

It was severely under-reported and today the database became much more worrisome 1/2 pic.twitter.com/ryQ5HuF1Cm

— Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) January 14, 2021

The bot Telegram lets users find the phone number of another user if they have that person’s Facebook ID and if the user has the phone number of the person, he can get his Facebook ID, says a report by Motherboard.

However, for accessing such sensitive information, the users will have to pay the person behind the bot 20 dollars.

The bot is also selling information in bulk. For 10,000 credits the bot is charging 5,000 dollars, the report said.

“It is very worrying to see a database of that size being sold in cybercrime communities, it harms our privacy severely and will certainly be used for smishing and other fraudulent activities by bad actors,” the Motherboard report quoted Gal as saying.

“It is important that Facebook notify its users of this breach so they are less likely to fall victim to different hacking and social engineering attempts,” Gal added.

As per the screenshots shared by Gal, it can be seen that the bot has been active since January 12, 2021 but it has been alleged that it carries data of users’ from 2019.

Assam: Flautist-musician Prabhat Sharma passes away

Assam: Flautist-musician Prabhat Sharma passes away

Assam: Low intensity earthquake hits Morigaon, Sonitpur

Assam: Low intensity earthquake hits Morigaon, Sonitpur

Hot day ahead in Northeast, temperature likely to be above normal from March to May

Hot day ahead in Northeast, temperature likely to be above normal from March to May

Assam: SEBA official caught taking bribe

Assam: HSLC practical exam on March 4, 5

NORTHEAST NOW

Northeast Now is a multi-app based hyper-regional bilingual news portal. Led by a group of professionals, the digital news platform covers every inch of the eight states of northeast India and the five neighbouring countries. It is the first of its kind new media initiative in the northeast, and is based in Guwahati. As the political dynamics in the northeast is intricate and fluid, Northeast Now is always politically neutral.

 
Our Properties
 
  • NORTHEAST NOW ASSAMESE
  • NORTHEAST JOBS
  • NORTHEAST TENDERS
  • INNFINITY
  • About Us
  • Copyright Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Authors
  • Career
  • Contact Us

© 2019 - Maintained by EZEN Software & Technology Pvt. Ltd

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NORTH EAST
    • Assam
    • Meghalaya
    • Tripura
    • Mizoram
    • Manipur
    • Nagaland
    • Arunachal
    • Sikkim
  • Neighbours
    • Nepal
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • Myanmar
    • Bangladesh
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Environment
  • Citizen Journalists
  • Opinion

© 2019 - Maintained by EZEN Software & Technology Pvt. Ltd