Data theft of millions of users of WhatsApp, hackers selling data online

Hackers have stolen the data of millions of users of messaging service Whatsapp. These include users from 84 countries including India, USA, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Hackers are trying to sell this data online. This data includes the mobile numbers of WhatsApp users from 84 countries.

The report of Cybernews states that a hacking community forum has been claimed to have sold mobile numbers of 48.7 crore WhatsApp users by advertising. This information is mostly used in fishing attachments. Because of this, WhatsApp users should avoid calls and messages coming from unknown numbers. This is not the first time that data has been stolen from the platforms of META, which is owned by Facebook and WhatsApp. Last year, a hacker offered to give free information about more than 50 crore Facebook users. This included the phone number and other details of these users.

WhatsApp is expected to have more than two billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp has banned about 26.85 lakh accounts in India in September. Out of these, 8.72 lakhs have been banned by the company before receiving complaints from users. The number of accounts blocked by WhatsApp is about 15 percent more than in August. WhatsApp banned 23.28 lakh accounts in August. WhatsApp said in its user safety report for the month of September, “About 26,85,000 WhatsApp accounts have been banned between 1 and 30 September. Of these, about 8,72,000 of these accounts have been banned before receiving any report from users.”

In the stringent IT rules implemented last year, it has been made mandatory for large digital platforms to publish the Compliance Report every month. WhatsApp report reported that it received 666 complaints in September and action has been taken against only 12 of them. The Central Government is amending IT rules to make it legally accountable to ban social media platforms such as Twitter and prevent wrong information.