Whatsapp is one of the established social applications that are used by almost every people around the world who have smartphones. Instant delivery of messages, photos, videos and documents made them to reach their hike they are now today.
As per the current studies the number of people using whatsapp has boomed significantly. As of February 2020, Whtsapp had over 2 billion users globally. But could you believe that this application can be hacked so easily?
Yes it can and it did happen!
Sneak peek
What Sapp is basically an American freeware, cross platform for messaging and Voice over IP(VoIP) service owned by Facebook. Apart from texting, what Sapp gives opportunity for users to make voice and video calls all around the globe. This is basically a mobile application but can also be connected to PC. In January 2018, What Sapp released a stand-alone business app targeting small business owners.
Possible ways your account could get hacked
- When you sync your what Sapp mobile version to PC version
The main vulnerability of what Sapp messenger is the web version. Once a second person gets access to your mobile, it just takes 10 seconds to connect that to the web version. All you need is scan the QR of the PC version from the mobile version. By doing so your account would be mirrored directly to the PC. The target person would have no idea that they are being monitored by a stranger.
- Export chat option in What Sapp
This could be a dangerous option for the users that wish to maintain the privacy of the chats. This option allows the user to export unclear chats to their mails. If you have selected chat with media files, all photos, videos and audios will be attached to the email and the texts from the chat will be uploaded in the txt format.
- POCWAPP
PullOutCorrWhatsapp (also known as POCWAPP) was developed by a Chinese hacker “Liuhong01”. This application is used to hack several accounts at the same time. At present this is only compatible for android version and the app is paid and can only purchased from Dark web. POCWAPP can process up to 15 users within 1 connection to the servers. To hack Whatsapp with this program, its obligatory to have a good Internet connection.
According to Whatsapp, the messages you send on whatspp are end-to-end encrypted which means the messages you send can only be decrypted by the receiver. This feature prevents your messages from being intercepted during transmission, even by Facebook themselves.
But the hackers use this opportunity to decode the messages during transmission using various spywares. The spyware allows the attackers to take over iPhones and Android phones by simply placing a voice call to them. This is also called a “zero-click” or “no click” attack. It does not matter if the call was answered or not. The phone call activates the spyware installed in your phone and thereby giving access to your whatsapp account instantly.
Protection: Basic need of users
Even if whatsapp ensures us end-to-end encryption, make sure you verify them. To verify that, open a chat, tap on the name of the contact to open the contact info screen and then tap encryption to view the QR code and 60 digit number. Whatsapp ensures that you and your contact only can read that.
Never click on any suspicious links. In fact it’s a good idea to first know what the sent link is all about from your contact and then click on it.
Ensure the privacy settings are updated. For more security reasons choose people who you like to view your personal info, photo and statuses. It’s a good idea to change the settings to “Contacts only”. Thereby only your contacts will be able to see your private information.
Try to deactivate Whatsapp when the phone is stolen or lost. To deactivate whatsapp go to settings, deactivate my account option, enter phone number and then click delete my account.
While using Whatsapp web, try to log out before leaving the PC. This may hardly take seconds and may save your account from piracy.
Whatsapp has introduced two step verification feature 2 years ago. This enables more security to your account.
New privacy policy; users to abandon whatsApp
As per the new privacy policy released by whatsapp on January 6, the home company, Facebook targets to leak the personal information of the users and hand them to business groups that are in linked with Facebook. This happens only if the privacy policy is accepted by the users.
People all over the world sparks outburst against the new policy making the developers to rethink about the policy.
Stay aware of the possibilities of cyber hack and protect yourself from them.