Whatsapp: the security flaw has exposed 35 million Italian numbers

I’m 35 million Italian telephone numbers prey to the recent data breach affecting WhatsApp globally: our country therefore occupies a large slice of the pie of information that has appeared for sale on the dark web, with about 10% of the total (360 million in 108 countries), while other nations have been touched in an almost marginal way as in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina with just 604 numbers. Where did these numbers go and how could they be used by the bad guys? To shed some light comes the data from Check Point Research.

The report released by Check Point Research (CPR), the Threat Intelligence division of Check Point Software, therefore speaks of a violation that involved 360 million numbers in 108 countrieswith databases that put this valuable information up for sale to the highest bidder on the dark web. “Although the information being sold is only active phone numbers and not the content of the messages themselves, this is a massive large-scale breach – you can read in the comment of Cpr – An immediate consequence is the possibility of these numbers being used as part of phishing attacks through the app itself. We urge all WhatsApp users to pay close attention to the messages they receive and also when they have to click on links and messages shared on the app”. After the sale, in the last four days the files that include the international calling codes have now been circulating among the various cybercriminals, who will use them precisely to make inroads into less experienced WhatsApp users with calls and above all messages with malicious links that – if clicked – they could lead to dangerous content for your data.

Recently, Cybernews had reported very similar figures with a series of databases for sale with 487 million numbers from 84 countries, with Italy precisely at 35 million, preceded by Egypt with 45 million. The sales sums ranged from 7,000 dollars for the American list (32 million numbers) to the 2000 of the German one (6 million). The advice is always to never click on links received from unknown contacts and make sure before doing so even from messages from numbers in the address book, especially if they are unusual.