WhatsApp, with 2,000 million users, is one of the most widely used applications globally; that is why it is not uncommon for cybercriminals to be interested in data related to the platform. Recently the specialized site ‘CyberNews’ reported that a criminal was marketing with 487 million phone numbers that have the messaging application downloaded on the ‘smartphone’. 11 million of them belong to Internet users settled in Spain.
Knowing if a user has a WhatsApp account, the offender can perform more targeted attackseither to steal your personal data, bank keys or even control of the account in the application.
Although, until now, it is unknown how cybercriminals were able to get so many numbers with WhatsApp accounts, the user does have tools to check if your phone number is among those affected by a leak.
The most popular is the ‘have i been pwned?’ page, where the user can quickly check if their phone number or email has been involved in a data breach.
To use the tool, the Internet user You just have to enter your phone number or email and perform a quick search. You will then be able to check if your data has been aired and in which specific leak.
Also, some advice will be displayed on the screen about the steps to follow to protect accounts, such as not repeating passwords or activating two-step authentication whenever the application or tool on duty allows it.
It is possible that, for the moment, ‘have i been pwned?’ has not added this leak of WhatsApp numbers, so it may be interesting to visit the page in the coming weeks to completely clear up any doubts. Be that as it may, if the user enters now, they will be able to check if any of their email numbers or passwords have been discovered in other similar cases.