BBC News asked cyber security firm Digital Shadows to verify the claims made by the malicious actors and confirmed more than 81,000 of profiles uploaded online, as a sample for the 120 million-strong database, contained private messages.
"Based on our investigation so far, we believe this information was obtained through malicious browser extensions installed off of Facebook."
"We have contacted browser makers to ensure that known malicious extensions are no longer available to download in their stores and to share information that could help identify additional extensions that may be related."
"It is very unlikely that the cybercriminals have all the private message for 120 million accounts and if they do, then Facebook will be facing one of the biggest data breaches to date," said Thycotic's chief security scientist Joseph Carson."It is however, more likely that the published list of 81,000 accounts is all that the cybercriminals have, and they are looking to cause disruption and fear."
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