Millions of Canadians have been affected by the Facebook data breach

Of the 533 million Facebook users whose personal data could be accessed for free on hacking websites due to a leak dating back to 2019, there are nearly 3.5 million Canadians, according to lists currently circulating online. duty Consulted.

These lists contain several pieces of information, including phone numbers, city of residence, job or employer’s name, marital status, and the gender of Internet users.

Business Insider reported having these listings on Saturday. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that this data comes from a leak caused by a defect that the network corrected in 2019.

The vulnerability reaches users in 106 countries, including 45 million accounts in Egypt, 39 million in Turkey, 32.3 million in the United States, nearly 20 million in France, and 11.5 million in the United Kingdom. In Canada, the personal information of 3.49 million users is currently circulating on the Internet, which is approximately 14% of the approximately 25 million users in the country.

There are many birds of prey that have access to this information to do harm against potential targets.

In January, the Motherboard division of Media Vice reported selling personal data related to this hack to hacking sites. Today, it can be accessed for free.

Accessing this information for free is a game changer, according to Steve Waterhouse, a cybersecurity expert and lecturer at the University of Sherbrooke. “There are many birds of prey that have access to this information to do harm against potential targets.”

When access to this data was only available on piracy sites, there was only a “minority of professional bandits” who could obtain this information. There, this is no longer the case. The number of people who can access it at high speed has doubled, “the expert notes.

The expert notes that with this information, the door is wide open for “trolls who want to harass someone over the phone” or scammers who wish to engage in phishing and ransom campaigns.

duty Note a significant amount of information on public figures (journalists, lawyers), even actors in the political scene. The personal information of Facebook founding CEO Mark Zuckerberg – including his phone number – was leaked.

Mr. Waterhouse laments the reaction of the largest social network on the planet: “The company downplayed the event this weekend. However, this is the most significant flaw in the network known to date. At the end of the week, in his contacts with Business Insider, he did Facebook states if it will warn users.

“It is up to the victim to change their environment: their email address, phone number, and Facebook account,” says Steve Waterhouse, stressing that the company appears to be minimizing the scale of the accident.

The specialist points out that anyone wanting to check whether they have been a victim of the leak can do so by looking at me haveibeenzucked.comA quote created strictly for this purpose.