Data breach · 2019
The Facebook data breach, explained
Facebook (facebook.com) was breached on August 1, 2019, exposing 509.5 million accounts. Here is exactly what leaked, what it means, and the order to fix things in.
509,458,528 accounts · 8 data classes · verified record
The numbers
What the record shows
What leaked
8 kinds of data were exposed
A permanent identifier you cannot rotate, and a common identity-verification answer.
The universal account key. Exposed addresses get targeted with credential-stuffing and phishing that name the breached site to look legitimate.
Who you work for; the raw material of targeted workplace phishing.
Profile data that sharpens targeted phishing.
Coarse location history attached to your identity.
Real names turn generic spam into convincing, personally addressed phishing.
Enables SIM-swap attempts and smishing, and links this account to every other one that knows the number.
In this order
What to do now
Rotate the Facebook password anyway
Passwords were not in this record, but leaked profile data makes targeted phishing against this account more convincing, and rotation costs one minute. Our Facebook reset guide has the official links.
Kill the reuse, which is the real damage
Every account sharing that password is now one automated attempt from gone. This is the tedious part, and it is the part Repass automates: it finds the accounts and runs each site's official reset flow for you.
Scan your email for the rest of your exposure
Run the free breach scan on the address you use most. Facebook is one breach; the median active email address appears in several, and what to fix first depends on the full picture.
Turn on two-factor authentication
A leaked password with a second factor in front of it is a locked door with a stolen key that no longer fits. Prefer an authenticator app over texted codes where the service offers the choice.
Questions
Facebook breach FAQ
Was my Facebook account affected by the breach?
The record covers 509,458,528 accounts. The quick way to check is a breach scan against your own email address, which searches this breach and hundreds of others at once. Repass runs one free on its homepage.
What should I change first after the Facebook breach?
Passwords were not in this record, so the urgent risk is targeted phishing that uses the leaked details to sound legitimate. Treat unexpected Facebook-branded email with suspicion, and rotate the password anyway if it is one you reuse.
Is changing my Facebook password enough?
Only if that password lived nowhere else. Credential-stuffing takes leaked email-and-password pairs and tries them on banks, mailboxes and stores at machine speed, so the reused copies matter more than the original. A reused password is a breach of every account that shares it.
Where does this breach data come from?
From the public index maintained by Have I Been Pwned, which verifies breaches before listing them. This page renders the structured record: dates, account count and exposed data classes.
How do I find out what else has leaked about me?
Run a breach scan on your email address. It returns every verified breach that lists the address, which is the honest starting point for deciding what to reset first. Repass then resets the passwords for you, one official flow at a time, and seals each new one in an encrypted vault.
More records
Other major breaches
After the breach
Every reused password, replaced for you.
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