On the Easter weekend, hackers leaked personal data of millions of Facebook users. Online data theft, which is not an isolated incident. Time and again, private email addresses and telephone numbers end up in the network. We’ll show you how to find out if you’re affected.
It is not uncommon for hackers to steal personal telephone numbers and email addresses and then sell them online. Cybercriminals recently leaked a dataset with over 533 million Facebook user data in a hacker forum.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. In terms of data protection, social networks such as Facebook, in particular, are constantly being criticized. But despite all assurances, hackers manage to steal the personal information of millions of users again and again.
Online Data Theft: Data Theft On The Internet Is Lucrative
Personal data such as email addresses, telephone numbers, credit card information or addresses are extremely lucrative for cybercriminals. Mainly because many users often use the same password for different services.
By stealing data online, criminals can steal identities and misuse private information. To prevent this, you should always use a new, individual password each time you register.
But how do you find out whether you have affected yourself?
Have I Been Pawned?
There are now numerous tools that you can use to find out whether you have been hacked or whether your data has been stolen.
With Have I have Been Pawned? Australian security expert Troy Hunt has developed a website where you can match your data with hacked data.
All you have to do is enter your email address to see if your personal information leaked. The application then compares them with datasets published on the network.
The tool then shows you whether and for which data leaks information from you is affected and whether further data has been stolen.
Is Your Phone Number Or Password The Victim Of Data Theft?
Have I Been Pawned? You can also search for specific passwords. The tool currently has several million leaked user data for comparison. This also includes the data from the most recent Facebook leak.
Since the hackers captured email addresses and more and more mobile phone numbers in the leak, the application has recently also been equipped with a function for querying phone numbers.
Cybercriminals can theoretically abuse the functions of services like Have I Been Pawned for their purposes. Therefore, it would be best if you were skeptical about unknown providers with a similar function.
However, Troy Hunt, Have I Been Pawned, is considered a renowned security expert. Its applications are now also used by Mozilla and various password managers.
However, if your data should appear in a leak, you don’t have to panic right away. First of all, you should keep calm. Because just because your data appears somewhere on the network, it does not mean that someone has gained unauthorized access.
In any case, you should check your logins and change your passwords. Important: Use a different individual password for each login.
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