The instant communications platform, WhatsApp, was targeted in a recent computer attack that resulted in the extraction of close to 500 million associated telephone numbers. Portugal has 2 million, 277 361 thousand targeted telephone numbers.
At stake is a collection of close to 500 million phone numbers for sale on a forum dedicated to hacking. That is, an entire database recently updated with contacts associated with a given user account in the messaging app.
Do you use WhatsApp? It is likely that your number is currently for sale on the Internet
The alert was given by the publication CyberNews, noting the publication of a new database composed of close to 500 million phone numbers🇧🇷 Contacts will be posted on a popular hacking forum, awaiting a buyer.
According to the source, these telephone contacts were obtained from 84 countries, with Portugal being on the list of target nations. More specifically, and relying on the aforementioned source, more than 2 million national users can have their telephone number for sale on the Internet.
This database totaling over 487 million phone numbers will now be waiting for the highest bidder. As has happened on previous occasions, the material will be sold to whoever offers the most money, although sometimes this type of “auction” does not have the intended effect.
More than 2 million Portuguese phone numbers for sale in online forum
This data leak will have exposed the personal information, phone number, of close to 500 million people, WhatsApp users. We remember, by the way, a similar situation in which WhatsApp had difficulties with the indexing of phone numbers, resulting in their publication online through a simple Google search.
This time, however, the techniques that will have allowed the hacker, or team of hackers, to collect this huge collection of phone numbers from WhatsApp are not yet known.
Apparently, the sale publication on the aforementioned hacking forum was made by a common user of the platform, without further explanations having been advanced to justify the origin of the data.
Indeed, the only information disclosed in said forum states that all phone numbers belong to active WhatsApp users at the time of publication. This would have been the biggest argument to encourage the sale of the database in question.
Phone numbers will belong to active WhatsApp users in 2022
Among the most affected nations are Egypt, Italy, Saudi Arabia, France, United States of America and Turkey. In addition, Portugal is also on the list with more than 2 million numbers mentioned in the data.
What is the fate of these phone numbers and how can they be used? Essentially for three purposes that we alert our readers to. To know:
MarketingIdentity TheftFraud
The case is currently under investigation, with the cybersecurity team claiming to have already contacted those responsible for Meta.
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