Data of 267 million Facebook users leaked online: Report

London: A database containing personal details of more than 267 million Facebook users was allegedly left exposed on the web, according to a report from Britain-based tech research firm Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko.

Diachenko believes the trove of data — including Facebook user IDs, phone numbers and names — is most likely the result of an illegal scraping operation or Facebook API abuse by criminals in Vietnam.

“Scraping” is a term used to describe a process in which automated bots quickly sift through large numbers of web pages, copying data from each one into a database.

The information contained in the database could be used to conduct large-scale SMS spam and phishing campaigns, among other threats to end users, said the report on Thursday, adding that most of the affected users were from the US.