WhatsApp dismisses report of alleged data leak containing phone numbers of nearly 3 million Hongkongers
- Report claims database containing mobile phone numbers of nearly 500 million users around the world was leaked and put up for sale
- Meta spokesman calls report ‘speculative’ and based on ‘unsubstantiated screenshots’
The article by Cybernews, a research-based online publication, reported an advert had appeared on a well-known hacking community forum on November 16 offering to sell a 2022 database containing the mobile phone numbers of 487 million users of WhatsApp, which is owned by tech giant Meta.
A Meta spokesman said the report was “speculative” and based on “unsubstantiated screenshots”, adding the company had not found any evidence of a data leak on WhatsApp systems.
He stressed the company took allegations about security breaches of its services “very seriously” and it had taken immediate steps to further look into the claims made in the news article.
Some of the phone numbers in the news report might be associated with WhatsApp accounts, but there was no other user information, he added.
“We have no information about how the supposed list of phone numbers was collected or the extent to which they contain Hong Kong phone numbers,” the spokesman said. There were many ways a list of phone numbers online could have been compiled, he added.
The report from Cybernews, with a screenshot that appeared to be taken from the hacking community forum, said the data set allegedly contained WhatsApp user data from 84 countries, including more than 32 million users from the United States.