In 2019 Facebook had a data leak where the personal information of 500 million people was extracted by hackers. The problem is that now that the hackers have the information they wanted they have recently made the rest of the info public on the dark web. This means that anyone who can access the dark web could have your personal information.
Zuckerberg’s Personal Phone number was on the list
Facebook Data Breach is a big deal because Zuckerberg’s own phone number was on the list. If they could not protect his information your information is easy pickings. I know there is a big difference between the creator of Facebook and someone who lives and works in Lithgow. However, a scammer is not likely to pull one over on Mark Zuckerberg. However, someone living in Lithgow who is not in the tech industry? … well keep reading.
Hackers have my Phone number! So what?
Unlike using a phone book to look up someones phone number. The information that was taken has profile information as well.
- Birth Date
- Address
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Physical Address
- Place of birth
This means that a scammer could call armed with this information to craft a targeted scam call. This call would sound very official because of the basic research that was attached to your Facebook profile. This does not sound serious till you start to understand that a lot of people are still being fooled by the scammers stating they are from “Tech Support”. Just think what would happen if they say “Hi I’m from (Your place of work) Tech support we have found out you have a virus on your Macbook” (Now verifies all your personal information as proof)
So how do you protect yourself from a scam?
Start by changing your passwords.
As a Mac computer repair guy.. I get to see all the passwords to every computer that comes across my desk. I have to say Y’all suck at passwords!!! You use the same password everywhere, And the hackers know it. Change your password ASAP! and make sure you use a different password everywhere. I have a few youtube videos that explain why it is important to have a good password. If Facebook can get hacked so can other websites with only 1% of facebooks security budget.. This means that if you use the same password on every website a hacker only needs to go after the weekest website to get access to the good stuff.
Find out if a website that you use has been hacked!
There are websites that your persona user name and password is in a list similar to the Facebook Data Breach. Easiest one to use is haveIbeenpwned.com. If you find that one of the websites that you use has been hacked. Then you will need to change all the passwords for every website. This is because the password you use is already public information.
But I’m on a Macbook! I can’t get hacked?
ummm I hate to break this to you. Mac computers can be hacked. Besides it does not matter what kind of computer you use if the website itself gets hacked. CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS!
Do not trust any phone call you are not expecting!
Scammer’s do not need your password to hack your computer! They will hack you instead! Remember they have all the information they need to sound convincing. If you are expecting a call from your bank fine answer the call. However, if you are not, better tell them that you will talk to them when you physically go into the bank tomorrow. Then do just that “Physically walk into your bank”. If there is a real issue that needs to be addressed the bank teller will know about it and will fix the issue there. However, my bet is that they will tell you that it was a scam.
Warn the seniors about the Facebook Data Breach
Scammers are already making big money of of seniors with no information at all. Now imagine the damage they can do when they know the names of close relatives, addresses, phone numbers etc. Tell your senior friends who are less than tech savvy about the possibility of getting scam calls. Have them consider taking one of our Tech Security for seniors classes.
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