Nearly 500 million WhatsApp users’ most recent mobile phone numbers are purportedly being sold by someone. Cybernews’ analysis of a data sample suggests that this is true.
On November 16, a performer advertised on a well-known hacking site that they were offering a database with 487 million WhatsApp user mobile numbers as of the year 2022. Data on WhatsApp users from 84 countries are purportedly included in the file. Over 32 million US user records, according to the threat actor, are included.
The residents of Egypt (45 million), Italy (35 million), Saudi Arabia (29 million), France (20 million), and Turkey make up a sizable portion of the world’s phone numbers (20 million). Over 11 million UK nationals’ phone numbers and close to 10 million Russians’ are reportedly included in the information for sale.
The threat actor claimed to be selling the US dataset for $7,000, the UK dataset for $2,500, and the German dataset for $2,000, according to Cybernews. Because attackers frequently utilize this information for smishing and vishing attacks, we advise users to be vigilant of any calls from ominous numbers as well as any unwanted calls and messages.
Over two billion people use WhatsApp every month, according to reports.
The supplier of WhatsApp’s database granted Cybernews researchers access to a sample of the data upon request. The shared sample included 817 US user numbers and 1097 UK user numbers.
Cybernews looked into every number in the sample and was able to determine that every single one of them is a WhatsApp user.
The seller assured Cybernews that all the numbers in the instance are those of active WhatsApp users. However, they did not disclose how they came into possession of the database, only saying they “applied their approach” to gather the information.
When Cybernews contacted Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, there was no quick answer. As soon as we have new information, we will update the story.
Scalable data collection, commonly known as scraping, could be used to get user information for WhatsApp, which is against the service agreement. This assertion is entirely conjectural. Massive data dumps published online, however, frequently turn out to have been obtained by scraping.
Over 533 million user records from Meta, which has long been criticized for allowing outside parties to scrape or harvest user data, were exposed on a dark forum. The actor was essentially giving away the dataset.
An archive allegedly comprising information stolen from 500 million LinkedIn profiles has been listed for sale on a well-known hacker site days after a significant Facebook data dump made the news.
Phone numbers that have been leaked could be used for fraud, phishing, impersonation, and marketing.
Mantas Sasnauskas, the leader of the Cybernews research team, stated, “In this day and age, we all leave a sizable digital footprint, and IT giants like Meta should take all procedures and means to preserve that data.” “We should consider whether the Terms and Conditions already state that “scraping or platform misuse is not permitted. Companies should take strict measures to minimize threats and prevent platform exploitation from a technological standpoint because threat actors don’t care about such terms.
Regular users should implement standard data security policies to avoid personal data leaks. This involves buying a trustworthy antivirus application and employing a top-notch VPN. Additionally, there are already fantastic market-leading NordVPN Black Friday and TotalAV offers available due to the impending shopping holidays.
Data Of 500 Million WhatsApp Users Leaked, Up For Sale Online: Report https://t.co/tuy5VL08na pic.twitter.com/2rLx4jTXA4
— NDTV News feed (@ndtvfeed) November 27, 2022
Leaked 500 million WhatsApp user data is available for purchase online
There are 32 million US user records in the package, according to the person who put the data up for sale.
Nearly 500 million WhatsApp users’ phone numbers have been exposed in one of the worst data breaches ever, and they are now for sale. According to a report by Cybernews, the database, which is for sale on a well-known hacker forum, comprises the personal data of WhatsApp users from 84 different countries.
There are 32 million US user records in the package, according to the person who put the data up for sale. Additionally, it has a sizable user base in Egypt, Italy, France, the UK, Russia, and India.
#FPTech2: The #LeakedWhatsappData, which includes data from #Indian users as well, is being sold very cheaply. The US dataset with millions of users is available for $7,000, while the UK one costs $2,500.#WhatsApp #WhatsAppLeak #WhatsAppDataBreachhttps://t.co/5U9RZbUzzW
— Tech2 (@tech2eets) November 28, 2022
The US dataset is reportedly available for $7,000, while the UK dataset will cost $2,500.
According to Cybernews, when they got in touch with the seller, he gave 1,097 UK-based phone numbers as evidence. After looking into the numbers, the outlet was able to identify that they were all from WhatsApp accounts.
The hacker, however, didn’t say how they got the information.
Such data is frequently employed in cybercrimes like smishing and vishing, which both entail sending the victim a text message with a link that must be clicked. The user is then prompted for their payment card number or other sensitive information.
This is not the first time a platform operated by Meta has experienced a data leak. Over 500 million Facebook users’ personal information, including 6 million records from India, allegedly fell into the wrong hands last year. Phone numbers and other information were then exposed in the hacked data.
Final lines
WhatsApp, which has more than two billion users, seems to be in data and privacy trouble again. Cybernews says that an anonymous seller leaked the information of about 500 million WhatsApp users online and put it up for sale on a hacking community forum.
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