Instances of data leak have been a growing concern recently. It is common to hear people complaining that their data is missing. Others have also noticed their data are for sale on underground hacking forums or for free. The biggest worry is that some of the databases at risk are popular social media platforms. Most of which people trusted to keep their information safe.
On the flip side, these agencies claim they are not victims of any form of hack. They maintain that they are simply vulnerable to data scraping. Even worse, they are not informing their users about these cases. But what exactly has happened, and to what extent are users at risk?
Facebook Data Leak
Facebook’s latest data leak happened earlier this month. An incident that brought along confusion and panic. Over 533 million user’s phone numbers, names, and emails were posted on a hacking forum. People couldn’t comprehend the source of such an amount of data. But one thing for sure was; there was a problem.
These data leak cases came from users scattered across 106 different countries. On top of the list were 32 million Americans and 11 Million Britons. Yet, Facebook denied these allegations saying the information was about data scraping.
The claim from Facebook is not enough. Even when the data leak was due to scrapping, they did not inform users about it. The sad truth is; such activities expose people to risks like phishing attacks.
LinkedIn Data Leak
LinkedIn users also experienced a similar fate later. This data leak incident involved 500 million data offered for sale on another forum. The perpetrators enticed potential buyers by sharing two million data as a tease. But as common, LinkedIn denied such allegations. They affirmed they hadn’t suffered from any threat in the recent past.
They maintained the data in question are those available on third-party websites. Most of them, they said, offer access to LinkedIn services. Despite the denials, the data leak included users’ emails, phone numbers, and full names. Ideally, these are enough information cybercriminals can use with ease to attack users.
Clubhouse Data Leak
After LinkedIn’s incident, Clubhouse suffered a similar breach. This trendy new app in the market had 1.3 million user records scraped from its servers. The criminals leaked the platform’s information online for free. Like its counterparts, Clubhouse denied that they had been hacked. They opined the data in question is public profile information accessible to anyone.
Yet, Mantas Sasnaukas claimed the statement from Clubhouse meant they had privacy concerns. The CyberNews senior information security researcher said; the unavailability of a no-anti scraping technique is not ideal.
Final Words
From the three cases, it is evident social media users are at extensive levels of threats. The platform owners can deny all they can, but the risks are as clear as the sun’s existence. So, it only calls for people to be careful because their protection is not guaranteed.