Phone numbers of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users have been leaked online in one of the biggest data breaches ever. Personal data of WhatsApp users is reportedly on sale on a hacking forum. A report by Cybernews claims that data of users from 84 countries has been put on sale.
The perpetrator claims that there are 32 million records of users from the US alone. People in other countries are also part of the leak, including places like India, Egypt, Italy, France, the UK, and Russia. The report adds that US dataset is available for $7,000 and the UK one will cost $2,500.
Personal details at risk
Personal details of over 6 million WhatsApp users in India have been leaked in this breach, and it’s unclear how much the hacker wants for leaking private information on Indian users.
When contacted by Cybernews, the seller shared 1,097 UK-based numbers as proof. Upon investigation, it was found that all these numbers were taken from WhatsApp accounts. Even then, the hacker hasn’t divulged information about how this data was sourced.
Once this information gets into the wrong hands, it may be used for smishing and vishing, both of which involve sending the user a clickable link – leading them into a trap of more scams.
WhatsApp is owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the same company that runs Facebook. Last year, personal data of over 500 million Facebook users (including 6 million records from India) was leaked online.
WhatsApp hasn’t commented on the leak yet. It’s possible that the hacker accessed these personal details of WhatsApp users through a method called scraping, wherein data is obtained from various websites.
Regardless, it’s dangerous to have your personal data at risk of such leaks. Do you think social media companies do enough to protect users as much as their profits? Let us know in the comments below.
