Clubhouse Data Leak: Voice chat app denies 3.8bn phone numbers were released on dark web

Clubhouse has denied an alleged data leak of 3.8 billion phone numbers associated with the audio-only platform. Apparently, the phone numbers of Clubhouse users and corresponding contacts were claimed to be up for sale on the dark web by cybersecurity experts. In a screenshot that surfaced on the internet, the data was valued at $3 billion. The data breach was also reported by an Indian cybersecurity expert Jatin Jain (via Twitter). 

Clubhouse denies alleged data breach

The audio-only platform says bots are generating random phone numbers

In a statement to an Indian news agency, Clubhouse denies the data leak of over 3.8 billion mobile users associated with the platform. Clubhouse says that "there are a series of bots generating billions of random phone numbers" and "one of these random numbers happens to exists on our platform due to mathematical coincidence." In addition, Clubhouse also stated that the "company's API returns no user identification information."

Cybersecurity experts claimed Clubhouse data breach

On July 24, 2021, cybersecurity expert Jiten Jain reported an alleged Clubhouse data leak of 3.8 billion phone numbers of Clubhouse users and their contact list. The tweet also mentioned that the data was up for sale on the dark web, following which there were several rumours about Clubhouse being hacked. However, other experts took to Twitter to inform users that the numbers in the dark web listing were random bot-generated sequences.

A researcher also claimed that "the threat actor is quite new on that forum, is least active, and habitual to making such lame claims."   Sunny Nehra also claims that the numbers listed on the dark web are random Japanese phone numbers. After Clubhouse denying the data breach, users across Android and iOS platforms were relieved. Clubhouse has gained a lot of popularity in recent times.

Clubhouse removes the 'invite-only' joining process, the app is now open for all

On related news, Clubhouse recently announced that it is now open for everyone. Previously, a user had to join a waiting list to join Clubhouse, or be invited by some other user on the platform. The company has also said that users will now be able to join the platform easily, and those who are already on the waitlist will be accommodated gradually, as Clubhouse expands its user base.