These databases are very recent, dating back to 2022, and the numbers are still active, he said. Cybercrime refers to any crime committed primarily through cyberspace and the Internet. These attacks can target individuals, as in the case of these individuals, as well as companies and administrations.
At the moment, it is not possible to identify the hacker behind the leak, but if he manages to sell the data to third parties, users may become victims of phishing attacks or receive spam advertising. Exposed phone numbers may be subject to other, more serious threats, such as phishing, identity theft, or fraud.
In this sense, Cyber News has reported that hacked numbers with their owners’ first and last names are currently being sold on a dark web forum, and a hacker would be able to steal those numbers using “scraping”. He had to collect public data on the Internet using automated software, such as when users fill out online forms. In the same vein, it is clear that Morocco is the 7th country out of 84 hack victims in terms of the number of hacked numbers.
The country with the most hacked accounts is Egypt with almost 45 million users, followed by Italy with over 35 million and the US in third place with 32 million numbers. WhatsApp is said to have over two billion monthly active users worldwide, but has not commented on the matter. This is not the first time a social network has been hacked in this style. The provider of the hacked WhatsApp database has confirmed that these numbers are correct. He also shared a sample of data with researchers from the specialized site Cybernews.
This sample, leaked by a hacker, contained 1,097 UK user numbers and 817 US user numbers in the total sample, all of which turned out to be real numbers of real people using WhatsApp.
Protecting personal information on social media most often reduces the risk of cyberattacks being successful, so public sharing of information should be avoided to optimize account security and device optimization.