Over 267 million Facebook profiles users sold on the dark web

Facebook profiles of over 267 million users were offered on the dark web and hacker forums for $623 (Rs 47,900 approx). These Facebook profiles don't include passwords but contain details like email addresses, phone numbers, personal information and more.
This began with security researcher Bob Diachenko detecting an Elasticsearch database with over 267 Facebook profiles of users mostly from the united states, Bleeping Computer reported. This was later removed by the ISP hosting it after being educated about it. But, there was still another data with the exact same profile data combined with 42 million was created.
Inside this database, unidentified hackers made a message warning users maintain their servers secure. This database also comprise information such as the Facebook user's email address, birthdate, and sex. It's believed that those servers belonged to a criminal organisation that stole all of the data together with the Facebook API before it was removed.
Cybersecurity intelligence firm Cyble then found that the stolen Facebook data has been sold on the dark web and hacking forums. Cyble bought the database to run an investigation on how the Facebook data obtained leaked from the first place. It is theorized that the information could have been stolen via third-party Facebook APIs. While the stolen data does not include account passwords, the email addresses can be used for phishing and scamming by cybercriminals.