WhatsApp, which has over two billion userbases, seems to be in trouble again for data and privacy.
A report from Cybernews claims that almost half a billion records have been breached and are up for sale.
While the Meta-owned company is yet to confirm anything on this, the report claims that the leak has affected 84 countries, including Russia, Italy, Egypt, Brazil, Spain, and more
Tech Radar citing its sources confirmed the development and stated that an up-to-date, 2022 database of 487 million mobile numbers used on WhatsApp will be up for sale.
The lead data contain information of more than 32 million users from the US, with 11 million from UK users.
Other affected nations include Egypt (45 million), Italy (35 million), Saudi Arabia (29 million), France (20 million), Turkey (20 million), and Russia (10 million).
It seems like the individual countries’ data is up for sale with $7,000 for the US, the UK for $2,500, and Germany for $2,000. It didn’t reveal the price of other regions
This isn’t the first time that WhatsApp has hit the headlines for data security, and while it may not be alone, its history has been plagued with vulnerabilities and scams.