Meta-owned WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging platform has denied that data of around 500 million users from 84 countries was allegedly up on sale on Dark Web. The Meta-owned company told ABP Live that the Cybernews report is based on “unsubstantiated screenshots” and there is “no evidence of a data leak”.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement to ABP Live: "The claim written on Cybernews is based on unsubstantiated screenshots. There is no evidence of a ‘data leak’ from WhatsApp."
This development comes after a report by Cybernews claimed that information and private details of about 500 million users were put up for sale by unknown bad actors. The leaked datasheet allegedly has user information from several countries across the world, such as Egypt (945 million), Italy (35 million), Saudi Arabia (29 million), France (20 million), Turkey (20 million), and the US (32 million). The datasheet is also said to have about 10 million Russian as well as 11 million UK citizens' cell phone numbers and their information is up for sale online.
The purported list is a set of phone numbers and not "WhatsApp user information".
According to the report, the hacker claimed to have a significant number of phone numbers belonging to the citizens of Egypt (45 million), Italy (35 million), Saudi Arabia (29 million), France (20 million), and Turkey (20 million).
The hacker was selling the US dataset for $7,000, the UK for $2,500, and Germany for $2,000, according to the report.
Cybernews researchers were able to get in touch with the hacker. Upon investigation, the researchers found that all of them were active WhatsApp users.
However, the hacker did not specify how they obtained the data, suggesting they "used their strategy," and that all the numbers belong to WhatsApp users, said the report.
This database can be used by hackers for spamming, phishing attempts, identity theft, and other cybercriminal activities, the report had said.