Hackers have stolen data from 17 million Colombians during “cybercriminals summit”

Citizens are not only exposed to being victims of crimes on the street, but also on the web, where currently most of them spend their time due to the fact that the covid-19 pandemic forced them to migrate their daily activities to this space. During the first week of April, it became known that a “hacker summit” was held in Europe, that is, of virtual data thieves, in which hundreds of people were harmed, including more than 17 million Colombians.

“The alert was issued on April 3: 533 million accounts were leaked in a hacker forum. Of this total, 17 million accounts are in Colombia. We find the identification of the Facebook of those affected, with names, surnames, location, their place of work, among others that contribute to make a profile of the victims and thus apply some form of cybercrime “, said Colonel Julián Barrera, head of the Cybernetic Center of the National Police.

The uniformed man explained that the criminals use all the information available about their victim to study her and thus determine how they can attack her or her close circle. For example, from social network publications, criminals determine if a person is traveling and create false profiles to speak to their relatives and ask for money, arguing that an emergency has occurred.

Among the most frequent types of crimes registered by the Police Cybernetic Center are theft, fraud, non-consensual transfers of assets and the loan and / or sale of foreign currency.

The authorities ask all citizens to protect their data on the web and take precautions to avoid being victims of online crime, since everyone is exposed to criminals. A week ago it became known that several Colombian personalities were victims of hackers.

The Secretary of Government of Bogotá, Luis Ernesto Gómez, warned on the morning of April 5 that his personal WhatsApp account had been compromised. Through his Twitter account he told what happened and left a message so that other people do not fall for the scam.

The form of scam of which Gómez was a victim, for example, consists of sending a text message to the victim’s cell phone, in which they ask for a security code that, “Inadvertently they sent to that cell phone”Once the person responds to the message, the criminals end up accessing the contacts and all the information found on the chat platform.

This same tactic served to hack journalists Diana Calderón from Caracol Radio and Gabriel Meluk from El Tiempo. Both denounced in their Twitter accounts that they had been victims of the same technique and that they were being impersonated.

“If you lose your WhatsApp service as happened to me with the information, report to Dijin,” said Calderón.

“If you receive a message asking to send an SMS code, do not answer, that’s how the account is hacked,” warned Meluk.

According to the authorities, to find out if you are sharing personal data with third parties on the web, you can consult this information on the Leaks Titan web page arranged for Colombia: https://leaks.titan.co/fb/. On this site you must enter your phone number or your Facebook identification code in the search engine and click on the magnifying glass icon.

Search results appear almost immediately. There are listed certain variables such as email, Facebook ID, telephone number, their names, surnames, date of birth, location, marital status, among others, and next to it you will get a lock that can be in red or in color green. If the aforementioned icon appears in red it is because this information is already public, and if the closed padlock appears in green it is because this information is still private.

The National Police indicated that, if you consult the Leaks Titan page and it indicates that all your data, or at least the vital ones, are exposed, you should report it immediately. If the situation has already progressed and you have already suffered, you have been the victim of a cyber scam or have been impersonated in networks, it is urgent that you contact the Cybernetic Center of the Police through social networks or the virtual CAI.