WhatsApp is once again in the eye of the media hurricane, after learning of the leak of data from almost 500 million users worldwideand that they are already being sold -or in the process of being sold- to the highest bidder in batches by country.
According to Cybernews, it was on November 16, ten days ago, when “in a well-known hacking community forum” someone put up for sale a 2022 database with 487 million phone numbers of WhatsApp userswith an unequal distribution, yes, among the different affected countries.
It should be remembered that WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication services in the world, which is supposed to have a base of more than two billion users. Thus, this security breach would affect a quarter of the total, which is no small feat. The countries that are said to be most affected, however, would only be a few.
There is talk, for example, of the 45 million from Egypt, the 35 million from Italy, the 29 million from Saudi Arabia and the 20 million from France and Turkey as the countries with the greatest representation in this data theft according to their population, although they also There are the United States, Russia or the United Kingdom, with 32, 11, and 10 million accounts on file for sale.
Speaking of sales, the same author of the leak has responded to questions from Cybernews and some of the prices he puts on the packages are $7,000 for the United States, $2,500 for the United Kingdom and $2,000 for Germany. Little amount, in reality, the one that the alleged cybercriminal requests, but after all they are phone numbersnothing more.
That is where it is in intricacies, in the massiveness of the breach, but also in the relative danger, well, perhaps not in such a quantity, but if it is about obtaining telephone numbers… Telephone number that, if the news is confirmed , something that Meta has still done or has done, although all the specialized press believes it to be true, will be used, or could be used, for purposes of marketing, phishingimpersonation and fraudamong others.
