Facebook is taking legal action in response to large-scale data theft. According to The Record, the social network has sued Ukrainian national Alexander Solonchenko for allegedly stealing data from more than 178 million users. Solonchenko reportedly took advantage of Messenger’s contact import feature by using an automated tool that spoofs Android devices. He provided millions of phone numbers to Facebook and collected data when the site returned information about accounts with phone numbers.
It is said that this attack took place between January 2018 and September 2019 (when Facebook turned off the import feature) and in December 2020, stolen data began to be sold on a black market forum. Facebook started following Solonchenko after she used her forum username and contact information and email for job postings. Facebook said the attacker also collected data from other targets, including a major Ukrainian bank.
In its complaint, Facebook sought compensation for unidentified damages as well as bans that prevented Solonchenko from accessing Facebook or selling its scraped data.
However, this is not the largest example of its kind. The hackers collected the data of 533 million users in the same way. However, this shows Facebook’s commitment to data theft. The firm is keen to pursue the attackers in civil court in hopes of deterring similar data stealing campaigns.
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