Facebook is trying to avoid the coverage of the massive amount of user data lost last month, and that will risk the financial, virtual and personal sphere of the victims.
They are downplaying both the numbers and the scale of the the attack, which at the worst case scenario had compromised ALL the platform gathered data from over 30 Million users (a number that was given by FB, we don´t know how much they are, it could be 40, 60, or 200M if not much more accounts) which includes all the data generated from the creation of the affected accounts:
- Private Information (addresses, telephone numbers, private accounts in other sites)
- User contact networks, including family, work, peer related
- Likes
- All messaging content including images and audio
- Geolocation data
- Tagged photos and messages
- Shared content
- And more.
Today it was already confirmed that at least half of the named number was completely compromised and is already being offered in the dark markets.
This means that at least over 15M people (as the minimal number) has ALL their data being openly sold in the dark markets. Which puts them in a very precarious situation and under a gigantic threat:
- All their website accounts, thatre quire secret questions about their private lives for password recovery are compromised (this includes email, bank website among others) (e.g. “What was my first job?[“, “whats my mother name?”, etC)
- Their data could be sold to governments, opponents, enemies, just criminals for use against them. Any shared sensitive information can be now accessed FOREVER by anyone for future use against them. stuff like: Extortion, blackmail, public shaming, criminal activity, etc. If they ever sent a dickpick or a nude in their FB inbox, they are now at the mercy of anyone.
And the problem is that not only the person with the hacked account is at certain risk, but also their family members with can be contacted or lured with a fake account or call number assuring being the real person, and telling private info as proof to mislead the victim !
I will repeat that the potential future repercussions of this hack are exponentially dangerous to everyone involved.
Not only their identity is at risk, their career (be it political, corporate or social) can be harmed by data stolen 10 years ago!
And this can go a lot further for people as journalists, activists and dissidents from oppressive regimes. If FB itself didn´t offered info to government for a good chunk of money, now anyone with the accounts can categorize them and find suitable clients that would be VERY interested in knowing private details about their enemies. From now, to eternity, because that data will be never recovered. EVER.
I SUGGEST EVERYONE TO SHARE THE INFO AND AT LEAST TRY TO MINIMIZE THE RISKS BY TAKING ACTION IN THEIR RELATED ACCOUNTS, ACTIVATING 2FA AND OTHER SECURITY MEASURES.
Facebook will try to minimize the importance of this leak, however their investors and other inner circle people had started selling the stock around the same time the attack happened. Their future depends on how will this info be delivered to the general public. And not only that, being FB an important asset for the government, they will not let it sink without fight. Thats why they took such an aggressive stance towards activist websites that would had started to spread this like fire.