In less than a week, three numbers of the telephone companies Tigo and Claro used by the media CONFIDENTIAL, Channel 10 and the Bacanalnica blog to send informative alerts or receive information from their audiences, through the WhatsApp messaging application, were usurped by “unknown” people and another who identified himself as related to the government party.
CONFIDENTIAL denounced that since Wednesday, January 5, that the telephone number (505) 8577 1820 of the company Tigo Nicaragua, used by the media to send informative alerts and receive complaints from its readers through WhatsApp, was usurped by “a person outside the team”. It was also pointed out that said person used the telephone number to open a WhatsApp account and impersonate CONFIDENTIAL.
“The hacker had access to the verification SMS of WhatsApp, established new codes, changed the account of CONFIDENTIAL from WhatsApp Business (configured for companies) to WhatsApp Messenger (used by natural persons) and modified the account biography, to show off its theft. In the account where previously it was invited to subscribe to the Informative Alerts, the usurper placed the message: “Number stolen by the most powerful in Nicaragua. Yours sincerely: I am Immortal ”, in capital letters, followed by a Nicaraguan flag ”, indicates the complaint made by CONFIDENTIAL.
Manuel Díaz, director and creator of the Bacanalnica blog, also denounced that this Friday, as happened to CONFIDENTIAL, “Tigo’s number was stolen from us.”
“What happened to us yesterday with the Bacanalnica WhatsApp is that someone had unauthorized access to the phone number that we had assigned to our WhatsApp account (505) 8966 8080 and used it to create a new account,” says part of the message released by Bacanalnica.
The description of the new WhatsApp account opened with the number usurped from Bacanalnica reads: “Number stolen by Josmar and Jumply thanks to the security of Tigo Nicaragua.”
Mauricio Madrigal, news chief of Channel 10, confirmed in an interview with CONFIDENTIAL that last January 6 they learned that the number (505) 8512 2828, assigned to the WhatsApp account, where they receive complaints and videos from their audience, was usurped by people outside the team, who opened another WhatsApp account with the same telephone number and they posted messages related to the government party.
In the new WhatsApp account, registered with the usurped Canal 10 corporate number, a description was placed in capital letters, the same as the one that was placed in the usurped account. CONFIDENTIAL, which reads: “Number stolen by the most powerful in Nicaragua. Yours sincerely: I am Immortal “. In addition, they put an allusive image to the Sandinista Front with the message: “They could not, nor will they. Daniel 2021. We are going for more victories “.
Madrigal points out that for six months they had received attacks that managed to block the WhatsApp account registered with the number, but it was not until 24 hours ago that the situation escalated when they realized that the account contained messages alluding to the Sandinista Front.
“We were surprised to see that now that logo appears. For me they are usurping the account because if the flag appears with those things it is because that number is in the possession of someone, “he said.
He also explained that the telephone number they used is from Claro Nicaragua and was registered as a corporate number. However, he said that for now he does not know if the administrative area has already made the claim or if the company has already given them an answer.
No access to conversations
CONFIDENTIAL and Bacanalnica clarified that those who usurped their phone numbers and opened new WhatsApp accounts using them did not have access to their contacts, broadcast lists or conversations.
“Our team has verified that it does not have access to any of our mailing lists nor the contact details of our readers, because these are not linked to the hijacked number,” he said. CONFIDENTIAL.
“They did not have access to Bacanalnica’s WhatsApp account, or to the contacts,” indicates the text released by the blog.
It also highlights that after the usurpation of the number they proceeded to change the number linked to the Bacanalnica WhatsApp account to (+1 505) 386 0008, which does not belong to any of the Nicaraguan companies.
On Channel 10, as indicated by Madrigal, the WhatsApp channel in which they used to receive videos and complaints from their viewers is disabled due to the usurpation.
CONFIDENTIAL for now he maintains his communication channel on Telegram as Confidential Nicaragua, with a verified badge, and advises its subscribed readers not to “send or reply to messages or make or answer calls from the usurped number.”
Diaz, an expert in digital marketing, in an interview with CONFIDENTIAL indicated that the usurpation of the number could have occurred for three reasons: the cloning of a SIM chip, which can occur when someone claims a number posing as the owner; a hack company systems; or because telephony gave the Government access to the calls and messages that arrive at the number, required by the Cybercrime Law.
Díaz explains that in the case of the number usurped from Bacanalnica, this could only have been for the last two reasons, since he found out that the number, despite being usurped, is still in his name within Tigo’s databases. “By other means I found out that the number follows my name in Tigo’s database. That is, they did not go through the process of saying I lost my number, assign me to this new SIM, in which they ask you for your name and ID. Unless someone has falsified my identity card, it was not that way, “he said.
The Cybercrime Law establishes in its article 39, numeral four, that Upon request for judicial authorization, in the investigation stage to obtain and preserve the information contained in computer systems or any of its components, a “service provider may be ordered to supply information on the data relating to a user who may have in their possession or control ”.
Article 42 also establishes that “those who participate in the process of investigation, collection, interception, intervention of data from an information system or its components, will keep confidential all the information they learn about the execution of the acts carried out. by the competent authority ”.
Bacanalnica indicated, in a clarification released this Friday afternoon, that after denouncing the usurpation of his number publicly, Tigo executives contacted to clarify that “it was not through the Cybercrime Law” that the usurpers obtained the phone number. They also pointed out that “the cause does not seem to be a SIM clone, or a vulnerability in the system” and that they continue to “investigate”.
