WhatsApp has around 2 billion users who are active monthly, and now, the instant messaging service is confronted with an incredible situation. Half a billion users had their accounts leaked online, which means that your phone number might have landed in the hands of someone who doesn’t necessarily have good intentions.
Cybernews reveals that a 2022 database of 487 million WhatsApp accounts is currently on sale online. Dozens of countries have users affected by the leak. Thirty-two million accounts are only from the US (practically a tenth of the country’s population), while countries such as the UK, Russia, and others are also on the list. The seller might have obtained the phone numbers by using the scraping method and violating the terms of service of WhatsApp.
How to tell if you’re affected
If you receive messages or phone calls via WhatsApp from an unknown number, it might be because you’re also affected by the massive data leak. Wrongdoers might try to spam or even scam you through phishing attacks. The idea behind phishing cyberattacks is relatively simple: the attackers will send messages where they pretend to be a trusted person or company. The receiver becomes the victim as soon as he taps on any link received in the malicious message. That’s why it’s never a good idea to access links received in messages/emails unless you have some level of trust in the source.
Even if you’re not affected by the data leak in question, it’s always a good idea to keep the two-step verification enabled. This will allow you to log into your account only after you’ve typed a short code received on your device. But don’t worry; you won’t have to enter that code each time you open the app!
There’s no word from Meta (ex-Facebook) on the issue yet, but we’re expecting that to change soon enough.