The data of 257,000 Facebook users (including private messages from 81,000 of them) have gone online. It’s possible up to 120 million more accounts are for sale.

Cyber criminals have put online the data of 257,000 Facebook users. For 81,000 of the accounts, even private messages are accessible. The crooks behind the hack said they had details for 120 million accounts from all over the world and were offering it for sale at 10 cents per account. The users of the profiles already published were contacted randomly by several sources and confirmed that their data are authentic.

As the investigation shows, this case isn’t related to the recent Facebook breach. It seems that the malefactors collected the data using malicious browser extensions that the victims themselves had downloaded.

How to prevent this kind of breach from affecting you:

  • Install only necessary extensions — and only from official Web stores, where, at least, they undergo some scrutiny.
  • When using private messages on the Web, keep in mind that at any moment, they could stop being private and leak.