There are two platforms that tell us in an instant if our email and our phone number are part of the Facebook breach. Here are what they are
by Redazione Tecnologia
A database with information on 533 million Facebook users is available online. Public and free - you just need some technical skills to download it - it contains the ID numbers of the profiles but also names and surnames, dates of birth, telephone numbers and emails of users from 106 countries. In Italy there are 35 million subjects involved. And perhaps the first question that arises is: am I among them?
How to check your data
There are a couple of useful sites to find out if your data has been compromised. The most famous is Have I Been Pwned. Just go to this address and enter your email or telephone number to find out if and how many times this information has been violated. For example, you could find yourself part of a breach of sites that you no longer use for some time, not just Facebook. The site will also tell you if only the email address or even the password has been registered. Another possibility is a site called The News Each Day, which focuses on the fate of your phone number. According to David Johnstone, the creator of the site, to protect your privacy, the site generates random phone numbers starting with the same five digits as your number and sends 99 fake numbers and one real number to the server, so it can't know what the authentic number.
What to do if your data has been compromised
If you discover that your data has been violated, the only thing to do is change the passwords associated with compromised sites and manage them in the best possible way - perhaps with a password manager - so as to have a different code for each platform. And above all to prevent possible consequences in the event of a new violation. However, experts recommend that you no longer use the phone number associated with Facebook for two-factor verification. It may already have been cloned or exploited to send us scams.