Data from over 500 million Facebook accounts has been posted on a hacker forum. And nearly 20 million French users are affected. Online tools let you know if you are affected.

Data from over 500 million Facebook accounts has been posted on a hacker forum. And nearly 20 million French users are affected. Online tools let you know if you are affected.

Once again, Facebook finds itself in the hot seat over a security issue. And not a small one! On Saturday April 3, 2021, we learned that the data of some 533 million accounts had been published on a hacker forum. Nearly 20 million French users appear in this gigantic database, which has obviously been circulating on the Net since its publication. And the information available is not trivial since it contains the phone number of the users, which makes it easy to obtain the full name and date of birth and, in some cases, the email address and personal details. like gender or marital status. Data that sometimes also concerns Instagram and WhatsApp accounts, which Facebook owns. Suffice to say that the matter is serious.

Better yet, the leak would not be recent since it would in fact go back to 2019. This information has been circulating for several years on the Dark Web, the dark side of the Web, the favorite playground of pirates and traffickers of all kinds. Facebook defends itself by arguing that it is not a question of hacking but of scraping. In short, the misuse of a function. The hackers simply collected data by maliciously exploiting the contact import tool that allows you to find a friend on Facebook by entering their phone number – a function used when giving Facebook access to the contact book. addresses of a smartphone in particular. This vulnerability, which has never been disclosed, has since been corrected. But that doesn’t change anything for affected users whose information has been leaked.

Failing to be able to go back, you can find out if you are affected by this unprecedented data breach through several online services, by indicating your phone number. If it has been disclosed, immediately check the security of your Facebook account by consulting our practical sheet Check connections to your Facebook account : you will thus know if an intruder has already accessed your account and therefore all the personal information contained therein. If this is the case, immediately change your account password (see our practical sheet Change or reset your Facebook password). And if your Facebook account has indeed been hacked, follow the advice in our practical sheet Recover a hacked or blocked Facebook account.

Also expect to receive text messages or questionable emails (phishing or smishing) in the coming times: as always, beware and do not click on a link without being sure of the origin of the sender, especially if you are asked to fill out a form with personal information! To learn more about this type of scam, see our practical sheet Identify and report a phishing attempt).

Easy to use and in French, the site FacebookLeaks can tell you if your mobile phone number is on the webcast list. It works exclusively with French numbers, in 06 or 07.

• Enter your full telephone number – with 06 or 07 – in the free field, then click on the button To research. Wait a few seconds or minutes, the duration of the search depending on the number of simultaneous users of the service.
• After analysis, if a green message appears at the bottom, it means that your number has not been disclosed.

• If a red message appears, your number has leaked.

Well known to careful Internet users, the Have I Been Pwned? – which could be translated as “has my password been hacked?” – allows you to check for a long time whether an online account has been hacked by indicating the associated email address. It has been updated for the occasion to also control the phone numbers linked to Facebook. Unlike FacebookLeaks, everything is in English. And you must indicate a telephone number in international mode, without the 0 in front of 6 or 7.

• In the search field displayed on the home page, enter your telephone number in international format – for a French number, type +33 followed by your mobile number without the leading zero -, then click on the button pwned?
• After an extremely quick analysis, the verdict is displayed.
• If the message Good news – no pwnage found! is displayed on a green background, it means that your number has not been disclosed. Everything is fine !

• If the message Oh no – pwned! is displayed on a red background, it means that your number has been disclosed. And that your Facebook account may be compromised.

You can also find out if your personal data has been leaked with the new site Have I Been Zucked? in reference to Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook. Originality of this service put online especially for the occasion: it can be filled in from your phone number, but also from your email address, your name or your Facebook identifier. The service is in English, but it is fairly easy to use and, above all, very efficient.

• By default, you must indicate a telephone number in international format – +33 followed by your mobile number without the initial zero – in the input field, at the top, above the black frame.
• To indicate instead an email address, a name or a Facebook identifier, first click on the small arrow to the right of the line Phone Number and select the corresponding option.
• Once the number, name or address has been entered, click on the button Search. the result is displayed almost instantly.