Home » Technology » how to check if you have been a victim of the 500 million accounts that have been compromised

how to check if you have been a victim of the 500 million accounts that have been compromised

A few weeks ago it was announced on a hacker forum that it had been for sale a directory with more than 500 million phone numbers of users of Whatsapp.

Data breaches are one of the worst nightmares for any business and especially if it is Losses that can cause millions in losses.

Worldwide, Whatsappcompany owned by Halfhas more than two billion monthly active usersmeaning that after the breach, 25% of the numbers were compromised.

Experts have confirmed that the numbers correspond to real user accounts belonging to more than 84 different countries.

They ensure that the exposed data was telephone numbers and e-mail addressesso it might not sound that bad, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t worry.

It is estimated that 31% of affected users are Spanish, approximately 11 million numbers match the figure.

Because of this CyberNews, information security mediaallowed a search engine to check if a person’s phone number or email is part of the list.

To do this, the data is entered and the system will indicate whether or not it is in the list.

Search engine to check if a person’s phone number or email is part of the list. (Free press photo: screenshot / “CyberNews.com”)

Alert

Experts have indicated that if your details have been part of the for sale list, there is nothing specific you can do, is just follow the information security principles.

Attackers may use vishing, phishing, fraudulent campaigns or impersonating you to deceive others and obtain money or other information of interest to them.

So you must be careful and prevent scams through these tips:

  • When you receive a message or email from an unknown sender, you need to make sure it’s trustworthy and if you don’t trust it, don’t interact.
  • If you are contacted and it appears to be a legitimate service, you’d better check the official site.
  • Remove any URLs or links that look suspicious.

Read more: TSE prohibits political promotion via influencers on social networks

recommendations

  • Activate two-step verification: “Settings” > “Account” “Two-step verification”.
  • Ignore messages asking for a security code that supposedly arrived in error.
  • Try not to give your personal phone number on web pages unless it’s necessary.
  • Check which devices you are logged in to and log out if suspicious.
  • If you think your account has been stolen, tell your contacts so they don’t get scammed.

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