Millions of people are victims of data breaches
It is not uncommon for personal data leaks to make the front page of the news. Even when they are limited to a "simple" phone number and a name, scammers can resell them and cause significant damage later on. Here are a few rules.
At the end of February, the media revealed that the medical data of several million French patients had been made freely available on the Internet. The company Cegedim, which specializes in medical software, confirmed thata cyberattack targeting 1,500 doctors at the end of 2025 was at the origin, leading to a leak of personal data. Names, first names, telephone numbers, postal addresses and, for some of the patients, sensitive annotations such as diseases or sexual orientations were among the files...
Two years ago, 3.2 million Whatsapp numbers and identifiers of Belgians were recovered and put up for sale on the Dark Web... There were numbers and photos of the owners.
While these two situations may not have had an immediate consequence, scammers can act in two stages. The information obtained could be resold and result in "smishing" (SMS phishing) allowing other scammers to extract new data or money from you.
Victim?
You can check for yourself on the Haveibeenpwned or Firefox Monitor website if you've ever been the subject of a data breach on the dark web by entering your email address and phone number. "The tool will tell you if your data has been leaked. They even go further by telling you on which platform this happened and what data was leaked," explains our partner Safeonweb.
How can you protect yourself?
For Whatsapp, you can limit the sharing of your information by going to your account settings, then to "Privacy". You will find "Online presence", "Profile picture", "Info",... It's best to restrict them to "My Contacts" or even "Nobody."
You are also advised to activate two-factor authentication on Whatsapp or even to add opening via Face ID or fingerprint, which is possible on new phones via the app's settings. To do this, go to "Privacy", "Privacy Check" and "Strengthen your account security" and then "Two-step verification" or "App lock" to protect your access to the app.
Has your data been leaked?
If you find that your data has been leaked, immediately change the password on all platforms where it is used.
Do not hesitate to report data leaks to the Local Police and the FPS Finance.
Use two-factor authentication wherever you can.
Finally, if it were still necessary to specify it, never communicate bank details by message and limit the sharing of your private information on social networks as much as possible.