Server Containing 419 Million Facebook Users’ Phone Numbers Found Unprotected

A massive server with databases containing the phone numbers of 419 million Facebook users has been found online, exposing the contact details of people around the world, including 133 million Americans. The database was available on the Internet without any password or other protection.

TechCrunch reports that a server holding Facebook users’ phone numbers has been leaked online with a server containing 419 million records over several databases being exposed. The server contained 133 million records on U.S. Facebook users while 18 million records of UK users were discovered. The contact details of 50 million users in Vietnam were also exposed.

The server was not password protected whatsoever meaning anyone that found it could easily access the personal details stored there. The records contained users unique Facebook ID along with the phone number linked to that account, making it easy to link an individual’s Facebook account to their phone number.

A few years ago, Facebook users’ phone numbers were publicly available on their account pages, but these were made private over a year ago. TechCrunch verified several of the phone numbers against Facebook user profiles, and checked others using Facebook’s password reset feature which reveals the last four digits of an account’s linked phone number.

Some of the records on the server contained details such as users’ name, gender, and location by country. Sanyam Jain, a security researcher and member of the GDI Foundation, discovered the database and contacted TechCrunch after being unable to locate the owner of the server; TechCrunch was also not able to contact the database owner.

A Facebook spokesperson commented on the server stating: “This data set is old and appears to have information obtained before we made changes last year to remove people’s ability to find others using their phone numbers. The data set has been taken down and we have seen no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised.”

Facebook has faced a number of data breach scandals, such as the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw the personal details of 87 million users left vulnerable.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com