Overview

• A hacker known as ByteBreaker alleges to have stolen 1.2 billion Facebook user records through the misuse of a Meta API, offering them for sale on a darknet forum.
• Cybernews examined a sample of 100,000 records and confirmed the authenticity of the data, which includes user IDs, names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, genders, and locations.
• The hacker claims the data is newly obtained and not linked to previous Facebook breaches, though Meta disputes this assertion as recycled news.
• If confirmed, this would represent the largest data breach in Facebook's history, raising serious concerns about persistent security gaps in Meta's API protections.
• The incident has triggered heightened regulatory scrutiny and renewed criticism of Meta's ability to safeguard user data, with potential risks of phishing, identity theft, and fraud for affected users.