Solonchenko Alexander

Biography

2021: Lawsuit from Facebook about the theft of data of 178 million users of the social network

In October 2021, Facebook sued Ukrainian Alexander Solonchenko, accusing him of stealing data from 178 million social network users. The corresponding lawsuit went to the court in the northern district of California.

According to Business Insider, citing the case file, according to Facebook, from January 2018 to September 2019, Alexander Solonchenko, also known under the pseudonym Solomame, gained access to account identification data and phone numbers of 178 million social network users. To do this, he used special software that automatically sent users requests through the Messenger application. Solonchenko sent the received phone numbers to the Facebook server, and if the match, he was sent back information.

Facebook sued Ukrainian Alexander Solonchenko, accusing him of stealing data from 178 million social network users

According to the company, in May 2021, Solonchenko sold the stolen data at the Raid Forums online site. Facebook also claims that earlier the hacker posted the data of 10 million users of the Ukrainian Privatbank and the French analytical firm on the portal for free.

Facebook explains that the attacker had two accounts in the social network, their registration and maintenance provides for compliance with site rules, among which there is a ban on the use of software for automatic information collection. According to the company, Solonchenko had skills to work for Python, PHP and Xrumer.

The social network asks for a jury trial, and also expects compensation. The amount of the alleged losses of the company is not given in the lawsuit.

In October 2021, a major data leak occurred on Facebook. Hackers put up for sale personal data of more than 1.5 billion users of the social network. Their names, phone numbers, as well as electronic and physical addresses were in the public domain.^[1]

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