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Mobile numbers of 500 million WhatsApp users available for sale online: report

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Meta-owned WhatsApp is back in news, not for its updates this time but for its user’s security being under threat.

A person on the internet has claimed to allegedly possess up-to-date mobile phone numbers of around 500 million users of the social messaging website, an online publication Cybernews reported after confirming via an investigated data sample.

The person claiming to have the alleged information posted an ad to sell the data on a hacking community forum on November 16 and offered to sell the 2022 database of around 487 million users of WhatsApp with “recent mobile numbers”.

According to the ad, the dataset reportedly contains information of users from 84 countries. The alleged seller claims the availability of records of more than 45 million users from Egypt, 35 million from Italy, and over 32 million users from the US.

Meanwhile, other countries include 29 million users from Saudi Arabia, and 20 million from France and Turkey each.

Nearly 10 million users from Russia and more than 11 million from the United Kingdom are also allegedly at risk of having their mobile phone numbers on sale.

The individual selling the information spoke with Cybernews informing them about selling datasets from the US, UK and Germany for $7,000, $2,500, and $2,000, respectively.

According to reports, WhatsApp has over two billion active monthly users around the world.

Information such as users’ mobile phone numbers is mostly misused by attackers for vishing and smishing attacks; therefore, users are recommended to remain cautious of responding to unsolicited calls and messages, as well as remain wary of unknown numbers.

The alleged seller has not specified how they gathered the data, instead informing Cybernews that they “used their strategy” for data collection assuring the publication that all numbers in their possession belong to active users of the social messaging application.

Meta, meanwhile, has not yet commented on the matter.

“In this age, we all leave a sizeable digital footprint – and tech giants like Meta should take all precautions and means to safeguard that data,” Mantas Sasnauskas, head of Cybernews research team, said.

He added that users should “ask whether an added clause of ‘scraping or platform abuse is not permitted in the Terms and Conditions’ is enough. Threat actors don’t care about those terms, so companies should take rigorous steps to mitigate threats and prevent platform abuse from a technical standpoint.”

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Cybersecurity firm reports exposure of sensitive DeepSeek data on the internet.

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The New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz has discovered a cache of sensitive data from the Chinese artificial intelligence business DeepSeek that was mistakenly exposed to the public internet.

In a blog post released on Wednesday, Wiz reported that examinations of DeepSeek’s infrastructure revealed that the company had inadvertently exposed over a million lines of unencrypted data. The materials were digital software keys and chat logs that seemingly documented prompts transmitted from consumers to the company’s complimentary AI assistant.

The chief technical officer of Wiz stated that DeepSeek promptly safeguarded the data following the notice from his organisation.

“It was removed in under an hour,” stated Ami Luttwak. “However, this was exceedingly easy to locate, leading us to believe we are not the sole discoverers.”

DeepSeek did not promptly respond to a request for comment.

DeepSeek’s rapid success after the introduction of its AI helper has exhilarated China and incited concern in America. The Chinese company’s evident capacity to rival OpenAI’s skills at a significantly reduced cost has raised concerns regarding the viability of the business models and profit margins of U.S. AI behemoths like Nvidia and Microsoft.

By Monday, it surpassed the U.S. competitor ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s App Store, prompting a worldwide decline in technology stocks.

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WhatsApp launches bulk channel management functionality

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WhatsApp has initiated testing of a bulk channel administration feature on iOS for select beta users, enabling the simultaneous selection of many channels, hence enhancing the efficiency of managing following channels.

This essential update enables users to perform bulk activities, including muting many channels simultaneously, designating them as read, and altering notifications. If the chosen channels are muted, users will now have the option to activate notifications. Users can swiftly silence unmuted channels in one action.

Additionally, this feature enables users to unfollow many channels simultaneously, thereby optimizing the process of decluttering their channel list. This change is particularly beneficial for users that oversee numerous subscriptions, as reported by WABetaInfo.

Previously, users were required to manage each channel individually, rendering tasks such as muting or designating channels as read laborious and time-consuming.

The functionality provides enhanced flexibility and control over channel subscriptions, enabling users to efficiently manage notifications. The solution streamlines laborious operations for consumers who subscribe to numerous channels, hence enhancing their entire experience.

Accessibility
The bulk management feature is presently accessible exclusively to a limited number of beta testers who installed the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS using the TestFlight application. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, plans to expand the feature’s availability to a larger user base in the next weeks.

This update demonstrates WhatsApp’s dedication to enhancing user experience by offering a clear and efficient method for managing channels and notifications.

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Pakistani internet slowdown: ongoing submarine cable issue

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Even after two weeks, the global submarine cable AAA-1 problem that was discovered on January 2 near Qatar has not been fixed, causing sluggish internet connection in several Pakistani towns.

According to a representative for Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the issue has affected customers’ capacity to effectively access social media applications and browse the online. Even with initiatives to fix the problem, social networking sites still lag during busy times.

Internet traffic has been redirected via alternate channels to lessen the impact, and more capacity has been set up to stabilize the service.

The PTCL representative promised that “Internet service across the country is operating normally, and there will be no issues with web browsing,” noting that social media applications’ lag is common during

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