Whatsapp data leak: On a hacker forum, the phone numbers of around 500 million WhatsApp users are for sale. According to Cybernews, a threat actor put an advertisement on a hacker site promising to sell a database comprising 487 million WhatsApp mobile phone numbers as of 2022. The actor claimed that the database had active WhatsApp user cell phone numbers from 84 different countries. The list included the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Egypt, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and even India.
How to know whether your WhatsApp data is leaked or not?
- A step-by-step way to determining whether your data is secure:
- Go to www.cybernews.com.
- Enter your email address or mobile number in the international forms.
- Choose ‘Check now.’
For the uninitiated, WhatsApp is used by over 2 billion people globally. According to the threat actor, the stolen data collection contains the personal information of around 32 million US consumers. In addition to Egypt, 20 million people in France, 35 million in Italy, 29 million in Saudi Arabia, and 20 million in Turkey are affected. According to multiple sources, the database contains the phone numbers of around 11 million British citizens and over 10 million Russians.
According to the sources, the hacker is selling these datasets on the dark web.
WhatsApp has refuted accusations of a data leak affecting over 500 million users. The Meta-owned platform is a secure platform due to its end-to-end encryption.
