Cybersecurity experts revealed a few days ago that over half a billion Facebook users' personal information have been leaked. It's a gold mine of data, which includes users' full names, birthdays, locations and phone numbers. Although Facebook claims that the actual hack happened a couple of years ago, it won't hurt if users made sure their account is not part of the breach and if they are, they should take a few preventive measures to ensure future incidents as messy as this one won't affect them. Australian Security Researcher and HaveIBeenPawned Founder Tony Hunt recently added the 533 million phone numbers exposed in the Facebook data leak to his website. Those worried if their mobile numbers were part of the leak can visit the site and check if their number is there.

Not every piece of data is available for each user but 500 million phone numbers were leaked compared with "only a few million email addresses", Troy Hunt, a security expert who runs HaveIBeenPwned said in a blog on his website.

In the year 2018 Facebook disclosed a massive data breach due to which the company had to face a lawsuit along with allegations of not properly securing its user data. The breach directly affected the authentication tokens of nearly 30 million of its users which led to the filing of several class-action complaints in a San Francisco appeals court. In the wake of the incident, Facebook pledged to strengthen its security. A feature, known as "View As" which was employed by developers to render user pages was exploited by hackers to get access to user tokens. The theft of these tokens is associated with the advancement of a major API security risk, it also indicates how API risks can go unnoticed for such a long time frame.

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See what was stolen from all those Facebook accounts. SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook believes spammers, not a nation state, were behind the data breach of 30 million accounts, according to a published report. The spammers aimed to make money through deceptive advertising and masqueraded as a digital marketing company, people familiar with the company's internal investigation told the Wall Street Journal. Facebook has declined to say who was behind the hack, which was the worst security breach in its history. Reached for comment by USA TODAY on Wednesday night, Facebook pointed to last week's statement from Guy Rosen, vice president of product management.

"It's always the company's responsibility to identify when UK citizens have been affected as part of a data breach and take steps to reduce any harm to consumers," ICO Deputy Commissioner of operations, James Dipple-Johnstone said http://bit.ly/2y1ahTQ.

A former employee of Cambridge Analytica who claims the firm used the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook profiles to allegedly help Donald Trump's election campaign, is to testify before US Congress. Christopher Wylie said he had accepted an invitation to give evidence to the US House Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary Committee this week. He disclosed last month that the political consultancy firm had harvested data from users of the social media site by using personality quizzes to build up psychological profiles. As the US election approached, he said it then used this data to target them with bespoke political advertising. His revelations triggered investigations in the UK and US.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify at two Capitol Hill hearings this week over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and we asked our tech reporter why that matters. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (center) walks out of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office after their meeting on Capitol Hill. WASHINGTON -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying for the first time ever before Congress on Tuesday as he attempts to apologize for high-profile privacy breaches at the social media giant and convince doubtful lawmakers that he can fix the problem without government intervention. Zuckerberg is trying to restore public confidence after recent revelations that data from up to 87 million Facebook users was shared with Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm used by the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. The information was shared without users' knowledge.

Ten New Zealanders who downloaded an app on Facebook could have exposed up to 63,714 of their compatriots to the data mining tactics of Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has told the country's privacy commissioner that it is in the process of alerting New Zealanders who were affected by the breach, which occurred when ten users downloaded a personality quiz app. "For New Zealand, we estimate a total of 63,724 people may have been impacted – 10 are estimated to have downloaded the quiz app with 63,714 friends possibly impacted," said Antonia Sanda, head of communications for Facebook in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand's privacy commissioner, John Edwards, said he was urgently seeking further information from Facebook on how New Zealanders data was used by Cambridge Analytica, and is working closely with his counterparts in the US, UK Australia and Canada to establish the severity and ramifications of the privacy beach. "I think we have some real information deficits that I hope my colleagues in the UK and the US will uncover ... I am not sure New Zealanders were'targeted' but I think there is a level of complacency [in New Zealand]. And when you say we're so far away, we're only one click away really," Edwards said.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been receiving special coaching on how to present himself when he appears before US politicians demanding to know what he is doing to protect users' data, and how Russia was able to use his platform to allegedly meddle in the 2016 presidential election. Amid continuing controversy over the inappropriate harvesting of the data of up to 87 million Facebook users by British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, Mr Zuckerberg will try and reassure Congress he is taking the concerns of them and the general public seriously. He will also try to deflect the efforts of those who favour more stringent government regulation. "It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm," he is expected to tell the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, according to written testimony released ahead of his appearance. "We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."