WhatsApp could have suffered one of the biggest leaks in its history, after a hacker secured a well-known platform frequented by cybercriminals have the telephone numbers of more than 487 million users. According to researchers from cybernewswho have had access to a sample of 1097 numbers registered in the United Kingdom and 817 numbers in the United States, the telephone numbers are real and, indeed, belong to users of the Meta messaging service.
The database leaked and published on November 16 by the hacker, whose identity is unknown, includes the telephone numbers of users distributed in 84 countries. Among them, the United States, with 32 million leaked numbers. Also Italy, with 35 million, Egypt, with 45 million or France, where the numbers of 20 million people who use the app appear. In the list there are also almost 11 million phone numbers of WhatsApp users in Spain. The messaging service, let’s remember, has approximately 2,000 million active users.
The leak, for the moment, has not been confirmed by WhatsApp. It is also not clear how the attacker obtained the phone numbers of the almost 500 million active WhatsApp accounts. The author has stated cybernews that they “used their strategy”. The aforementioned portal, however, claim that he could have obtained the information through data scraping (or web scraping); technique that consists of the use of software programs that are responsible for examining and extracting data from web pages.
What does the leak of the almost 500 million WhatsApp numbers mean?
The sale of the almost 500 million telephone numbers of active WhatsApp users can be an interesting attraction for those hackers who carry out phishing campaigns or any type of fraudulent action. The numbers could also be used to impersonate the identity of its users. However, everything indicates that those who get hold of this data they will not be able to access WhatsApp accounts. And, therefore, they will not be able to read the messages or collect more personal information from the user.
In any case, it is important to take some additional measures to protect the account, such as enabling two-step verification in WhatsApp. Also be aware of possible messages about offers or attractive promotions that may end up with the theft of more personal data. On the other hand, you can check if your phone number has appeared in a data leak from have i been pwned.