There’s no doubting that WhatsApp has been involved in a number of security-related issues in recent years. Despite the fact that the popular instant messaging app is constantly working to improve its security, hackers have become more sophisticated in their methods of infiltrating cellphones and other devices.
In related news, it has been discovered that WhatsApp messages feature a security flaw that can be readily exploited by threat actors. This security flaw is said to occur when users’ WhatsApp backups are transferred to the cloud, which is vulnerable to hacking. According to a report WhatsApp allows users to save discussions locally on their smartphones as well as to the cloud via Google Drive and iCloud.
In a nutshell, if a hacker gains access to the user’s Google account or the device on which the backup is stored, they will have easy access to the user’s chats, which will be protected by end-to-end encryption. The good news is that WhatsApp is aware of this and is working to make end-to-end encrypted local backups available on WhatsApp beta for Android! WhatsApp has been developing E2EE backups for Google Drive, and the technology is now being developed for local backups as well. Earlier this week, WABetaInfo, a prominent website that distributes regular WhatsApp updates, tweeted the same thing. Take a look:
Apart from this security flaw, scammers and other bad actors have turned to the instant messaging software to gain access to personal and sensitive user data. For example, you may have heard of (or maybe experienced) the famed WhatsApp scam, in which hackers pose as your buddy in order to gain access to your WhatsApp account.
Worse, this con keeps reappearing from time to time. There are also a variety of additional frauds that are common on WhatsApp. As a result, it’s critical that users take extra care to keep themselves secure while using the app online.
In other WhatsApp news, the much-anticipated disappearing images feature for all your sensitive chats was recently added. The function is called ‘View Once,’ and it works in the same way that Instagram’s expiring media feature does. When the recipient opens and leaves the conversation, the photo sent via this function expires.