Hackers want access to the data of half a billion WhatsApp users. 1.25 million Austrians could also be affected.
Since the middle of the month, the phone numbers of around 500 million active WhatsApp users from 84 countries have been offered for sale on a notorious hacker forum. The cybercriminals’ announcement was published on November 16, reports the “Cybernews” portal.
According to the information published there, European countries are also hard hit. 35 million data records are said to come from Italy, 20 million from France and Turkey, and 6 million from Germany. The phone numbers of 1,249,388 Austrian and 1,592,039 Swiss are also expected to be part of the package.
“Cybernews” was able to look at samples of the dataset and found that the phone numbers given to them came from active WhatsApp users. The seller did not provide more detailed information on how it managed to obtain the huge dataset. He only revealed that he had used “his own strategy”.
Good and bad news for those affected
Now there’s both good news and bad news for users of the popular communication service. The bad first: It’s still not possible to verify that your own phone number is part of the package offered for sale. Services like “Have I Been Pwned?” (haveibeenpwned.com) have not yet integrated the dataset, but that could happen soon.
The good news: the dataset likely only includes phone numbers and no name or even address data.
E: According to “Focus”, those affected initially face only the threat of unsolicited contact. Now it is important to be careful if messages arrive from unknown users. Under no circumstances should links or photos downloaded from such unsafe contacts be opened. If you are not sure, it is better to block the unknown number.
Browsing account rcp time 11.24.2022, 15:08 | Act: 11/24/2022, 3:08 pm