While the Snapchat data breach came as bad news for users, what many may not have realised is that the really scary part was that mobile numbers of users were breached. Which also means that in case a far more popular mobile IM service like WhatsApp ever gets hit by a similar breach, there could be hell to pay as WhatsApp's foundation is built on using mobile numbers for identification and contact discovery.


At Snapchat, the data that was breached and leaked was user names and phone numbers. If for instance user names and e-mail addresses were breached it may not have been as dangerous, because users often use aliases for their e-mail address--narrowing down an e-mail address to a specific individual is not a very easy task. 

However, in the case of phone numbers, the danger is far greater, since narrowing it down to an individual user is far easier. Identity theft is a serious challenge for law enforcement worldwide today as organised crime sees the tremendous opportunities to profit from identity theft. And this is not just restricted to the West, but such multinational criminal gangs also operate in India. As this news report of a gang busted in New Delhi reveals, Nigerians in the gang hacked bank accounts by phishing with the help of proxy servers based in the US, while their Indian counterparts arranged or opened bank accounts using forged documents. On top of that, another team from the gang scanned the targets' social networks, including Facebook and LinkedIn profiles for extracting personal details and for forging fake ID cards. They would report loss of SIM to the mobile service provider and get a new card issued using the fake ID to wipe out bank accounts without the victim being aware as his mobile service would also be deactivated or on another SIM.