A recent report suggests that the mobile numbers and profile information of approximately 3.5 billion WhatsApp users may have been widely accessed.

While this has been described as a major data leak or security scandal, current research and follow-up suggest the issue is less straightforward. A recent update has revealed that this wasn't a server hack or database theft, but rather a technical flaw in WhatsApp's number verification process.

What's surprising, however, is that this error wasn't caused by a hacker group attack, but rather by negligence on the part of WhatsApp's parent company, Meta. Furthermore, 9To5Mac reports that the company was made aware of this issue eight years ago, but no concrete action was taken for a long time.

Experts had already warned.

In 2017, researchers at the University of Vienna pointed out this flaw, saying it could easily access the mobile numbers of WhatsApp users. Furthermore, the researchers collected the mobile numbers of over 30 million people in the United States in just half an hour. The team then deleted this data and re-initiated Meta.

Cybersecurity experts have dubbed this flaw "simple" and warned that if this technique falls into the hands of hackers, it could lead to the largest data leak in history.

This flaw led to a major data leak.

Reports suggest that the issue lies within WhatsApp's number verification process. Whenever a user saves a new number to their phone, the app displays whether that number is active on WhatsApp.

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