18m British Facebook user IDS published

♦ The privacy watchdog is to investigate publication of 18 million British Facebook users’ names and phone numbers that have been found online. The cache of 420million Facebook IDS worldwide was discovered on a server accessible without a password.

A spokesman for the UK’S Information Commissioner’s Office said it was trying to establish details. The cache also had some users’ gender and nationality.

The data were found by a US security researcher and the server’s host notified. The information has since been taken offline.

Facebook said it had no evidence that any accounts had been compromised.