Exclusive! Data-Leak; Be careful when using WhatsApp, Nearly 500 million numbers for sale!

The Dark Web is selling the phone numbers of the almost 500 million WhatsApp users. A hacker community has posted the data from one of the largest data breaches. The information was compromised despite the encrypted messaging and contemporary security forum. The method through which the hacker acquired the data is yet unknown.

According to a study by Cybernews, WhatsApp has approximately 2 billion users, out of which 487 million users’ data from 84 countries, including the US, UK, Turkey, and France, is for sale. In its report, it also stated that the information stolen belonged to people who were still logged in.

According to the seller’s ad, the registered phone numbers of 32 million US users, 11 million UK users, 10 million Russian users, and 6 million Indian users are at danger. The US dataset costs about $7,000, while the UK dataset costs $2,500, according to the article. Cybernews said that they got in touch with the hacker to find out whether it was real. The hacker then gave proof in the form of over 1,000 UK user numbers. According to a study by Cybernews, WhatsApp has close to 2 billion users, of which 487 million users’ data from 84 countries, including the US, UK, Turkey, and France, is for sale. It also stated in its report that the information that was exposed is of  active users.

Data from the platform that belongs to Meta has been compromised before. The data of 500 million Facebook users, including those from India, were compromised in a similar incident last year. Due to the possibility that the published phone numbers might be used for spamming, phishing, or even serious criminal activity, this is a cause for worry.

WhatsApp users should be cautious. Never reply to texts or calls from an unauthorised number. The reason for this is because smishing and vishing might be used by hackers to obtain information. Hackers will employ phoney URLs through a text message or voicemail when they smish or vishing, respectively. It’s possible for consumers to lose important data or money by clicking on these links or reacting to them.