Facebook hacked: How do I know if I’m affected?

Image: Giulio Fornasar/Getty Images via ETX Daily Up

Facebook was the victim of a massive hack in 2019 involving private data of over 533 million members worldwide. Revealed only this week, this data theft would concern users in over 100 countries. There are several online tools to find out if you are directly affected or not.

The data stolen by this hack consists mainly of last names, first names and phone numbers, and more rarely, addresses, professions and email addresses.

Only 2.5 million email addresses belonging to members of the network have been illegally recovered. To find out if yours is one of them, you need to log on to the Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) website and enter your email address.

The reference site lists absolutely all known breaches or incidents during which hackers have illegally accessed a website’s data. No one is therefore safe. If your email address is unfortunately one of those that has been stolen, you should change your password as soon as possible and switch to double authentication, if this is not already the case.

When it comes to phone numbers, an area which concerns almost all “victims,” it is much more complicated and less reliable, even if some practical sites are gradually appearing. One such site is the dedicated platform Have I Been Facebooked or a tool put online by Belgian “ethical hacker” Inti De Ceukelaire.

In any case, it is better to be wary of any suspicious messages (calls or SMS). Whether or not your information on Facebook was hacked, this is the way to proceed in general anyway: never follow up on unsolicited messages. JB

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