Facebook Faces New User Data Leak Allegations, Researchers Claim

An alleged data leak involving at least one lakh Facebook users has been reported by cybersecurity researchers and surfaced on a data breach forum. The non-profit CyberPeace team, based in New Delhi, claimed that 1,00,000 lines of newly discovered user data from Facebook (Meta) had appeared on a data breach forum.

"The compromised data includes full names, profiles, emails, phone numbers, and locations," CyberPeace stated. The leak of personal information may result in phishing scams and other malicious actions directed towards the individuals impacted.

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At this time, it is unknown who the threat actors are that caused this breach .Meta (Facebook) has not yet responded to the CyberPeace allegations. The social media giant has also not acknowledged the data breach at the time of writing this article.

"Investigations are ongoing to determine whether this breach is the work of a sophisticated cybercriminal group, hacktivists or other malicious entities," researchers stated.

"Facebook (Meta) faces potential reputational damage due to concerns about data security, potentially impacting user trust," according to the researchers.

The alleged Facebook (Meta) data leak emphasises the continuous difficulties presented by online threats. According to the researchers, in order to safeguard user data and uphold public confidence, organisations must constantly improve and strengthen their cybersecurity measures.

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In terms of impact, it may raise privacy concerns, such as exposing personal information, which could lead to phishing or malicious attacks. Furthermore, the Facebook data breach may increase the risk of theft, including identity theft. Furthermore, the data breach may result in reputational damage due to concerns about data security, potentially affecting user trust.

This is not the first time such a data breach has happened. In 2021, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission fined Meta for a massive data leak of more than 533 million users. Further questions about Facebook complying with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation was raised.