The person responsible for the discovery was the co-founder of the cybersecurity company Hudson Rock, Alon Gal. A bot was found on Telegram that discloses and sells users' phone numbers Facebook in exchange for money.
The data was posted on a cybercrime forum located on the regular internet, not the deep web, which adds to the seriousness of the situation. After all, the possibility of finding the forum and the bot through a Google search increases the number of people who can access and buy the phone numbers.
Using the bot is particularly simple. It allows you to find a cell phone number through its Facebook or, conversely, its Facebook page from the phone number. Both options cost the same amount: one credit, which can be purchased for $20 (or about R$100). Alternatively, you can opt for discounts by purchasing more credits. Let's say someone wants to buy 10 credits, to find 10 different cell phone numbers. In this situation, the price per number drops to just fifty cents (equivalent to almost R$3)!
“Huge impact on privacy”
The data appears to be the result of 2019 FB data leak, which revealed the phone numbers of more than 533 million users around the world. Although the vulnerability that allowed access to the phone numbers has been removed by Facebook, Gal says the situation is concerning and has “huge impact on privacy.”
The vulnerability was patched in August 2019, which means that no user who registered their phone number after that date was affected. But it also means that many of those who linked their phones to Facebook before that date have their phone numbers in the database sold by the bot. And it's not even a matter of being clever, because changing a phone number is not like changing a password. Most likely, your number is still there.
And this has consequences. Knowing the Facebook profile data and the number, an experienced criminal could use social engineering to blackmail or steal someone's information. For example, scammers surprise victims by remembering names of family members or situations the person has been through, giving the impression that they have been stalking the victim for a long time. When everything is just a few taps away.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. The Verge e The Motherboard
Photo: Sora Shimazaki/Pexels/CC
