Private phone numbers from Facebook Inc Users (NASDAQ: FB) are available via a bot on rival messaging service Telegram for $ 20 a unit, Vice’s Motherboard reported on Monday.
What happened: The database contains information on 500 million Facebook users, said a person who advertises the service to Motherboard.
The data is allegedly related to a vulnerability that the company led by Mark Zuckerberg fixed in August 2019.
Vice tested the bot and found that the initial results of the Telegram bot were suppressed, but can be revealed by buying credits. Each credit costs $ 20 and prices range up to $ 5,000 for 10,000 credits.
Why it matters: The bot apparently contains information about Facebook users from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and 15 other countries. Facebook had more than 2 billion users in 2019 worldwide.
The bot can be used even by novice cybercriminals, as it is easily accessible, or by hackers, who may misuse the information, according to the Vice.
This month Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone users were suddenly disconnected from their Facebook accounts due to an outage caused by a “change of configuration,” according to USA Today.
Price action: Facebook shares closed almost 1.3% up to $ 278.01 on Monday and fell 0.53% in the after-hours session.
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