Here’s what WhatsApp has to say on data breach that allegedly leaked 500 million numbers – Times of India

A day after it was reported that data of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users from 84 countries are on sale on the Dark Web, WhatsApp has said that the report is based on unsubstantiated screenshots” and that there is “no evidence of a ‘data leak’.”
“The claim written on Cybernews is based on unsubstantiated screenshots. There is no evidence of a ‘data leak’ from WhatsApp,” the spokesperson said in a statement. In fact, the editor, who published the report, also tweeted that there was no evidence WhatsApp has been hacked.

Media outlet Cybernews reported that an ad was posted on a well-known hacking community forum claiming that they are selling the 2022 database of 487 million WhatsApp users. These countries include India, Bangladesh, the US, France and Italy. The report claimed that Cybernews researchers also confirmed that the leaked database is of active WhatsApp users. The database comprises the phone numbers of WhatsApp users.
India and Bangladesh among the list
As per the list released by Cybernews, India and Bangladesh were among the countries whose users have been affected. Data of over 6.1 million Indian users is available for purchase on the dark web. More than 3.8 million users have been hit in Bangladesh.

The list says that some users from China, where WhatsApp is banned, have also been hit. It also includes 2.5 million users from Qatar where the FIFA World Cup 2022 is underway. The list also suggests that the data breach was on a global level and various countries on multiple continents have been hit.
Egypt most hit
African country Egypt has topped the list with over 44.8 million users targeted in the breach. It is followed by Italy, the US, Saudi Arabia and France to fill the top five spots. Indonesia was the least-hit country with 130k users hit.
While it is not clear how the hacker got access to WhatsApp data, the report notes that “scraping” could be one of the ways. “Scraping” is a technique that involves harvesting data, often by using bots. The technique violates WhatsApp’s terms of service.

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