WhatsApp users may need to take extra steps to protect their account information following a potentially concerning discovery. A study by researchers at the University of Vienna revealed the app’s contact-discovery system enabled the collection of extensive WhatsApp user data at an unprecedented scale due to insufficient rate-limiting across global endpoints.
The researchers were able to gather huge amounts of phone numbers, public profile photos, account status text, business tags, and information tied to end-to-end encryption keys.
Read more…
Source: TechRadar News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Cognizant hit with multiple US class-action lawsuits after TriZetto data breach
January 2, 2026
Cognizant Technology Solutions is facing a wave of class-action lawsuits in the United States after a long-running data breach at its healthcare claims processing unit, TriZetto Provider Solutions (TPS), triggered legal challenges from affected individuals. According to court filings, at least three lawsuits were filed late last month in federal courts in New Jersey and Missouri, ...
- US removes three spyware-linked executives from sanctions list
December 31, 2025
Merom Harpaz, Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi, and Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou – three individuals who were sanctioned by the US for alleged links to commercial spyware products, have had their bans lifted recently. In a new press release published by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) earlier this week, it was briefly stated ...
- In 2025, age checks started locking people out of the internet
December 31, 2025
If 2024 was the year lawmakers talked about online age verification, 2025 was the year they actually flipped the switch. In 2025, across parts of Europe and the US, age checks for certain websites (especially pornography) turned long‑running child‑protection debates into real‑world access controls. Overnight, users found entire categories of sites locked behind ID checks, platforms ...
- U.S. DOJ: Disney Agrees to $10M Civil Penalty and Injunction for Alleged Violations of Children’s Privacy Laws
December 30, 2025
The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has entered a stipulated order resolving a case against Disney Worldwide Services Inc. and Disney Entertainment Operations LLC, (collectively, Disney). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated this matter, negotiated a resolution with Disney, and referred the case to the Department. Under the order, Disney will pay $10 ...
- Meet the team that investigates when journalists and activists get hacked with government spyware
December 27, 2025
For more than a decade, dozens of journalists and human rights activists have been targeted and hacked by governments all over the world. Cops and spies in Ethiopia, Greece, Hungary, India, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, among others, have used sophisticated spyware to compromise the phones of these victims, who at times ...
- South Korea: Shinhan Card reports massive data breaches
December 26, 2025
Shinhan Card, one of the country’s top credit card issuers, reported a massive data leak Tuesday. The Seoul-based company said more than 190,000 cases of potential data exposure have been identified that involve merchant partners’ personal and business information. The incident seems to stem from employee actions rather than an external cyberattack. Against this backdrop, Shinhan ...
