Tag Archives: Facebook

Are You One of the 533 million in the Facebook Data Leak? Here’s How to Find Out & What You Can Do

Facebook has suffered one of the largest data breaches in recent years. A total of about 533 million users across 106 countries have had their private data which includes emails and phone numbers compromised. In recent reports, it seems like Mark Zuckerberg himself is affected by the breach.

However, in a statement to Reuters, Facebook has clarified that it has no plans to inform the users affected by the breach. In fact, the company states that it isn’t confident that it has complete visibility of the data that has been leaked. The spokesperson also noted that users will still be unable to take action even if they are informed.

So what can you do to check if you’ve been affected by the breach? The easiest way to check is to use the website haveibeenpwned.com. The website is able to check whether your information has been involved in breaches across the internet. Sites as old as myspace and Neopets have had breaches to their data. U.S. Residents also have the option of using The News Each Day.

Once on the website, enter the data you want to check – it can be your email, password or even phone number. If you’re checking for a phone number, be sure to include your country code. So, if you’re checking for a Malaysian mobile number, type in the “6” before your operator prefix. Then simply click the “pwned?” button. It will check all the available breaches for the data and return an answer. You’ll get one of two possible results: “Oh no – pwned!” or “Good news – no pwnage found”.

So what should you do if your data has been involved in a breach? The first thing you should do is to change your passwords – particularly if you are fond of using the same password for multiple services. The next thing you should do is activate 2-factor authentication (2FA) for all your services. It may be a little bit inconvenient but it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Be sure that you have a secure password moving forward and make sure to keep your passwords for every service unique.

Beyond this, you really don’t have much that you can do. Moving forward you just have to be a little bit more prudent about the information you share online. Where possible, try not to link sensitive data such as your phone number to online accounts. Since there was a significant number of phone numbers in this breach, you may want to be alert when it comes to dealing with unknown callers.

However, it’s no reason to be panicky. Once you’ve secured your accounts, your data should be secured for the foreseeable future.

533 Million Facebook Users’ Data Resurfaces Online from 106 Countries

Facebook seems to be having a row of things recently. The company initially faced humongous backlash on their implementation of data sharing policies between popular messaging app, WhatsApp, and the larger company. Now, it looks like old wounds are reopening for the company as data from a breach that happened in 2019 has surfaced on forums in hacking forums.

The breach involves over half a million users from over 100 countries with data such as their phone number, emails and even birth date. Malaysia is listed in the countries affected with over 11 million users having been compromised. The breach was first reported by Business Insider. Business Insider has also verified the data in the leak by testing password reset requests. A spokesperson for Facebook has confirmed the data breach. The person also confirmed that the data breach occurred due to vulnerability which was identified and patched back in 2019.

https://twitter.com/UnderTheBreach/status/1378314424239460352

While the data is 2 years old, the fact that it is readily available online at this point is a worrying fact. Data like birthdates, phone numbers and emails can be used to socially engineer scams. In fact, due to the phone numbers being leaked and made readily available, the likelihood in getting scams over SMS and phone calls are heightened.

Acronis Vice President of Cyber Protetction research, Candid Wuest, advises that, in light of the leak, “There is now a higher risk of SMS spam, but also password reset attacks and attacks against other services that use SMS for MFA are now more likely. Users should therefore change from SMS-based MFA service where possible for critical accounts.”

The fact that the leaker has readily made the data available for free can be puzzling. However, according Wuest, “As the leaked data does not contain any passwords or payment card details it is of less value to attackers. Furthermore, at least two third of the data was already available from previous leaks. It is not uncommon to see such data sets being made available for free, as they would not yield much profits on underground site. Such large data sets tend to not stay private for very long anyway.”

The new leak brings into the spotlight the amount of personal data we have available online and especially on social media. It also brings into question Facebook’s privacy policies which govern and protect data stored on their service. What’s even more worrying is the fact that Facebook wasn’t the notifying users, instead, the leak was reported by twitter user Alon Gal who has since been looking at and verifying the data leak. Facebook has only confirmed the occurrence of the breach and has not even notified users that were affected.

#MYReels Simplifies Content Creation on Facebook and Instagram in Malaysia

Instagram today just introduced a brand-new feature for content creators. They call it ‘Reels’ to help content creators make even more variety of contents on Instagram stories at least. Of course, short form contents on Instagram Stories can be shared across to Facebook as well.

Reels for Instagram will bring the long-awaited Instagram Music feature that has been available in other regions for a while now. But Reels is not just about taking the Music feature into Instagram Stories for Malaysia. It is also about helping content creators to create more varieties of contents on Instagram.

There are a few tools that comes with Reels too to make it a speedy content creator tool of choice for the many content creators on Instagram and Facebook. You can control your video speed for one, to make seamless and great looking slow-motion videos. You can record your videos now without even touching your smartphones too with a timer and countdown function now. You can add timed texts and stickers on selected parts of your video too now, instead of guessing and just hoping for the best. You can even align yourself up from previous videos to create a smooth, seamless transition in videos. Most of the time as well, on your smartphone, you are shooting free-handed so Instagram Reels can touch-up the videos to add extra stability and control over your short form videos.

Obviously, bringing Music feature into Instagram and Facebook in Malaysia is huge too. Creators in Malaysia now have access to an expanded licensed music library for their own contents on Facebook and Instagram. Users can also use music stickers on their Instagram and Facebook Stories and even easily add lyrics on their contents. It does not stop there too, you can now have music on your Facebook Profile.

If you think that Reels adds some ‘TikTok like’ functions and features to Instagram and Facebook, you may not be completely wrong. The rise of TikTok has empowered plenty of content creators to quickly make compelling short form contents that you can easily follow on their platform. TikTok has also appealed to plenty of Instagram and Facebook content creators thanks to the innovative tools that TitTok has provided for quick and seamless content creation. The introduction of Reels and its suite of content creation tool should bring some content creators back to Instagram and Facebook.

Reels is now available for Instagram and Facebook users in 50 regions. Malaysia is a part of those 50 countries with Reels introduced in Instagram and Facebook. Music is available in 90 countries so far and Malaysia is now part of those countries to have Music features available. Instagram and Facebook are two free apps available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Facebook Makes Instagram More Accessible with Instagram Lite

First came Facebook Lite, now the Lite comes to Instagram. Instagram is getting a new app targeted at emerging markets. Similar to its sister app, Facebook Lite, Instagram Lite brings the platform’s core features in a package that is less than 2MB in size; a far cry from the 30MB of the original Instagram app.

The new Lite version of Instagram was developed by Facebook’s development team based in Tel Aviv – the same team that worked on Facebook Lite. The team studied and honed into what users wanted as their core Instagram experience even with limited data. For Instagram users, these were mainly their messaging and video features.

Of course, this doesn’t steer away from the image-centric features of Instagram. The team built the app keeping in mind that the core experience on the platform still relies on images. Hence, when you go into the Lite application, you will notice that animation and data rich features such as filters may be missing. That said, features such as stickers and GIFs still make it into the new Lite App. The app also sees a simplification of icons like the trash icon being replaced by an “X”.

The new Instagram Lite app is available in 170 countries as of now. Most of the countries in the list are emerging markets where people have limited access to data.

Auto Captions Arrive While Reels Crosses Over to Facebook

In addition to the rollout of Instagram Lite, a select group of people have also gotten access to new features in the regular app. Notably, a new Auto Captions sticker called “CC Captions” has been appearing for a small number of users. The sticker transcribes spoken audio when added to an Instastory. The feature was first reported by Matt Navarra, a Social media consultant on Twitter. In a statement to Engadget, Instagram has clarified that the feature is not yet publicly available.

Facebook also seems to be testing the waters with Reels. The company has been experimenting with allowing select creators in India to share their Instagram Reels over to Facebook. Creators who opt-in to the feature are able to share Reels directly to Facebook. One caveat is that their content appears to be appearing with their Instagram handles. Reels itself seems to be making its way to Facebook as the is getting updated to allow users to create and post Reels from the app.

WhatsApp’s New Policies Are Coming into Effect, Here’s What Will Happen If You Haven’t Accepted

WhatsApp was in the middle of a media firestorm in early January thanks to the announcement of a controversial change to their Data Sharing Policy. The company, which was acquired by Facebook back in 2014, is requiring users to accept the new terms to continue using the application. The app will now be sharing a slew of data including your phone contact lists, app logs, diagnostic data, and status messages with its parent company. WhatsApp did send a prompt to users to accept the changes to continue using the app, however, it seems like there is a vocal portion of their users who have opted to look at its competitors: Signal and Telegram.

With the deadline for users to accept the new agreement looming, the company has published a new FAQ regarding the issue. The effective date of the new agreement has been extended to May 15, 2021, from the initial February 8, 2021. They have also indicated what would happen if users are still reluctant to accept their new terms – and to be frank, they seem to be coercing users into the new terms.

If you still don’t accept the new policy, you’ll essentially lose access to your messages and data in the app. The new FAQ states that WhatsApp will not delete your account. Instead, it will limit the capabilities of the application. In fact, you’ll be relegated to calls and notifications “for a short time”. The company hasn’t clarified what it means by “a short time” but during this period, users will not be able to access any of their messages.

While this is a less than ideal way of handling their faux pax, the company seems adamant to lose its user base and continue on with its plans to adopt the new changes. We even had Acronis’ Chief Information Security Officer, Kevin Reed weigh in on the issue in our Tech & Tonic Podcast. In the immediate fallout from the abrupt and poorly managed announcement, users have been flocking to other competitors with Telegram and Signal in the forefront.

Facebook News Hits the U.K., More Countries Coming

Facebook’s recent woes with misinformation surrounding not only the U.S. Elections but also the COVID-19 pandemic have led the social media platform to look for more viable ways to serve news and content. The company initially rolled out its News Tab in the U.S. back in 2019. Now, the feature is making its way to users in the United Kingdom.  The Facebook News feature filters out content based on user interest and publisher reputation.  

Facebook News allows users to access news and articles based on categories such as business, entertainment, sport, and even the top news or stories of the day. Using the feature, Facebook will provide the news digests which summarize the developments during the major events, like the COVID-19 pandemic or the U.S. Elections. In addition to aggregation, the content collated in the Facebook News Tab will be ranked based on authoritative sources and original reporting. This will help users discern credible sources before sharing.  

The introduction of Facebook News also comes in the shadow of Australia implementing legislation that will require organizations such as Facebook and Google to pay content and news companies for using their content in news feeds. Considering this, Facebook claims that they are going to paying UK news organizations for the use of their articles and cooperate with more news organizations so that users can access more information.   

To date, the news organizations involved in the partnership include The Guardian, The Economist, Channel 4 News, Daily Mail Group, and others.  The roll out in the U.K. seems to be the first in a more global roll out of the feature. Facebook mentioned that they are dealing with the publisher in France and Germany to bring the news tab features to their country. The company also announced that the features will launch in India and Brazil in the future.   

Facebook & Instagram Get a Unified Messenger Experience

The Facebook and Instagram unification continues as Facebook’s Messenger App gets a tweaked icon to match the Instagram colours. This preceded a roll out of new functionality and themes for more expanded customization. Now Messenger’s iconic blue colour is becoming a shade similar to Instagram’s logo with shades of pinks and purples thrown in the mix.

The Facebook’s Stan Chudnovsky ,VP of Messenger said that they will begin to roll out new chat themes like love and tie-dye, and custom reactions together with new features where you can include your own photo into stickers which to make your chats more personalized and fun than ever before. Moreover, an exciting upcoming feature is the vanish mode, which makes the chat messages disappear after the recipient has seen it.

Facebook has also announced seamless cross-app messaging with Instagram. Current Messenger users would not need to perform additional set up to access this feature. Furthermore, new features will roll out automatically once they have become available in the user’s country. These features include aforementioned Selfie stickers, watch together functionality of IGTV and Facebook Watch and many more.

There is also speculation that functionality from WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook, will be incorporated with Messenger and Instagram in the near future too. It will be interesting to see the encrypted calls and messaging of WhatsApp featured in the Messenger-Instagram ecosystem.

Facebook Fights Misinformation by Highlighting Stale News

Over the years, misinformation has become more and more rampant on the social media platforms. Facebook, being one of the largest social media platforms the world over, has come under fire for the growing spread. Like many other social media platforms, Facebook has become one of the epicenters of a growing movement to battle misinformation.

In the past, the social media platform has introduced prompts and features to its platform across its apps and even on the web to help mitigate the spread of misinformation. In fact, Facebook is one of the only platforms which has a dedicated team and partnership to help verify the authenticity of articles shared across its platform. However, with the current, heated climate of the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the large number of countries gearing up for elections, the platform is introducing new features to help curb misinformation even more.

The latest feature being added is a prompt that will notify the user if they are about to share content that is over 90 days old. The new prompt will appear when users click the share button on posts or articles older than 90 days old. The new prompt will help users rethink sharing articles which are outdated by giving them a second and more context to the article. However, users can still opt to share the article.

The new feature comes on the back of News publishers having increasing concerns of legitimate, outdated articles being shared as current news. This prompted Facebook to address the need for article timelines to be added to the contextual information that is available to their users.

In Malaysia, the new feature comes in light of an online tabloid being called out on its horrible practices of rehashing old, outdated stories and blatant plagiarism of content from other publishers. This issue also highlights a possible gap in Facebook’s measures that the platform should take note of. Sites that are rehashing and publishing old news as new articles may not be picked up by the new prompt as the publication date would be up to date.

We’ll have to wait and see if and when Facebook looks into that specific issue.

Facebook Looks to Help Track COVID-19 Spread with Worldwide Rollout of Symptom Tracker

The COVID-19 pandemic has rewritten the way we approach pandemics in so many ways. It has brought to light new dimensions that also have a part in pandemics in the age of social media and the internet. However, it has, more importantly, highlighted the importance of data and technology in managing the spread of a deadly virus.

Facebook is looking to help with the data portion of the equation when it comes to managing the COVID-19 outbreak. With many country’s public health sectors being bogged down and overwhelmed, the company is looking to step in to help monitor hotspots and predict infection clusters before they occur. Partnering with Carnegie Mellon University Delphi Research Center, the company has developed a symptom tracker which can help predict hotspots based on surveys.

These opt-in survey ask participants if they have experienced any of the symptoms currently associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. These include coughing, shortness of breath, loss of smell, loss of taste and fevers. Using these symptoms are precursor markers, the data collected is able to help forecast potential patient loads for hospitals during the outbreak and if the curve is being flattened. These responses are sent directly to researchers in Carnegie Mellon University.

This is work that social networks are well-situated to do. By distributing surveys to large numbers of people whose identities we know, we can quickly generate enough signal to correct for biases and ensure sampling is done properly. 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook

Facebook is facilitating this research as part of its Data for Good program. The social media platform is proving its efficacy as a platform for data collection. On a daily basis, about 2 billion users interact on the platform; making it uniquely suited as a potential data silo. This application could potentially help countries still struggling with COVID-19 predict and manage outbreaks and disease clusters more effectively. It can also be a game changer for countries which do not have the resources to deal with the pandemic effectively.

After a month of trials, Facebook is looking to make the survey available internationally. During the trails, the company saw the efficacy of using the collected data to create a county-by-county heat map for COVID-19 spread; something that was apparently hard to get in the U.S.

Facebook and Google Could Have to Pay for News Content in Australia

Facebook and Google are arguably the largest content providers in the world. They have, in some cases, become the sole source of content for users. The companies have played the role of content aggregator and ad providers for many years. However, some countries are beginning to take a hard look at how they could have played a role in the slow demise of news outlets over the years.

The main issue being looked at in a lot of countries is the distribution of ad revenue. In most of these countries, the argument is that Facebook and Google’s hold on an unprecedented share of ad revenue has led to the decline in overall revenue for news outlets. This has led to an increased scrutiny by governments. Unsurprisingly, governments are beginning to argue that companies such as Google and Facebook should be paying for the content they are using on the platform.

The latest country to seriously consider the possibility of introducing such laws is Australia. The country has ordered that its Competitions and Consumer Commission (ACCC) create a mandatory code of conduct to address the issue. The code of conduct would, essentially, require companies like Facebook and Google to pay for using content generated by others; this would include listing the content. While we’ve already seen similar measures adopted in countries like France, the ACCC’s code of conduct would also require companies to share data, algorithm changes, news ranking and adopt some form of revenue sharing with content companies.

The move to introduce some form of legislation is spurred by the economic impact of COVID-19 on the news and content sectors. The country is also citing the disproportionately large share of online revenue taken by Facebook and Google in the country. A draft of the Australian code of conduct is expected to be prepared by July 2020. However, there is no clear indication of when the code of conduct will finalised.