Facebook sues programmer for scraping and selling data for 178 million people



Facebook has filed a lawsuit against a Ukrainian computer programmer man for abusing features to scrape data for 178 million users and sell it on underground cybercrime forums.

Facebook, Inc. v. Solonchenko, 3:21-cv-08230 – CourtListener.com

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60667919/facebook-inc-v-solonchenko/

Facebook sues Ukrainian who scraped the data of 178 million users --The Record by Recorded Future
https://therecord.media/facebook-sues-ukrainian-who-scraped-the-data-of-178-million-users/

Facebook has a 'contact import' function that allows you to check if the registered number is linked to your Facebook account by synchronizing with your smartphone's address book, and if you have one, you can contact via Facebook Messanger. I have.

A computer programmer named Alexander Alexandrovich Solonchenko uses an automated tool disguised as an Android device to send millions of random phone numbers to this feature to check his Facebook account ownership. The data we collected was sold at the Raid Forums, known as the Cybercrime Forum.

According to Facebook's research, the defendant Solomchenko sold data for a total of 100 million users under the name 'Solomame' in the forum. Some of the data they were dealing with was stolen from Ukrainian banks, courier services, and French data analysis companies.



However, because he used the same user name and contact method on the recruitment site and email account, it was found that Raid Forums' 'Solomame' was the accused of Solonchenko.

Facebook is asking judges to ban Solonchenko's access to Facebook and issue an order to suspend the sale of scraped data. In addition, although the amount is undecided, it is said that compensation for damages will also be claimed.

in Web Service, Posted by logc_nt