Cybersecurity researchers recently discovered a gigantic database, stored online, which is made up of267 millionsuser profilesFacebookalso including their contact details. It was accessible free of charge, allowing anyone who wished to download it to extract the information of interest. And this, just a few weeks latera similar alert.
In particular, there were telephone numbers which, associated with first and last names, make it possible, for example, to send fraudulent SMS messages using the technique offishing*. If you received a suspicious text message, do not delete it andsend it to ANSSI instead, the government-linked organization that analyzes threats.
Precautions to take
For the moment, it is impossible to know who was targeted via thisbreachin the code of the social network created by Mark Zuckerberg. However, given that this is far from the first time that Palo Alto has faced this type of attack, here are some tips to protect yourself from the greatest risks.
- do not transmit yourpersonal datato a service only when one of its features that is really useful to you cannot launch correctly without this information
- always check the URL of the links sent to you, to avoid clicking to an infected page (especially when you do not know the sender)
- optimize your settingsconfidentialityon Facebook, in particular by not making your profile public (it must be visible only to your friends, whom you must select carefully)
Not convinced? It is also possible todelete your account.
*fishing: redirection to a site with a domain name resembling the original, pretending to be official (phishing)
