The Whatsapp Data Breach – What You Need To Know
Whatsapp is one of the world’s most widely used social messaging app and is essentially where every family event is planned, it’s how you keep up with your assignments and deadlines, it’s your go-to for whenever you need free voice calls and text messages sent over an internet connection.
But, what you probably didn’t know is that the Facebook-owned social communications app had been hacked recently and users of the app had had personal data stealing ransomware installed into their devices whenever they’d made a phone call via Whatsapp. Yes, you read right, through a phone call.
We may have heard of installing ransomware via a malicious link or download but to install one via a voice call, that opens up a whole new can of worms. Here’s what you need to know about the Whatsapp data breach and how this new data siphoning method works.
What Is Exactly Means The Breach?
Reportedly, a group of Israeli developers had come up with a spyware that can be installed on your phone, just by giving it a call. Whether you pick up or not, the malicious bug is planted within your device and it starts sifting through your text messages, phone files and even activates your phone’s built-in microphone and camera in order to keep track of voice and video streams that run through your phone.
The targets of this data swiping operation seemed to have been high-profile members of Amnesty International as well as well-known lawyers and people who deal with the judicial system. It is not known how many of the 1.5 billion Whatsapp users have been affected by this spyware bug or what the motive behind the digital attack was.
The spyware was released in stages and had affected dozens of phone models with Android and Windows operating systems. High-security operating systems like iOS had also been bitten by this spyware bug causing a massive data breach, via social voice calls for smart phone users around the world.
The Fix For The Spyware
Soon after reports of the bug reached Facebook headquarters, the security team released a fix for the spyware bug which prevents access of the device to the spyware. However, for some phone models, this fix was not adequate and the Whatsapp team had advised that they temporarily uninstall the popular social messaging and voice call app, until they have a full-scale security update in place.
This is why updating your software and operating systems are crucial, not only for your device but also all the data that it has stored on it. Almost anyone can be a target of such spyware or ransomware and it takes only minutes for a hacker to gain access to your social security number and banking details through your smart phone.
Smartphone manufacturers and app developers are always on the lookout for any loopholes in their software and release periodical updates that help seal these loopholes, so that scammers and hackers can’t get to you via their software. Support for software usually lasts between 3-5 years and anyone using any software for phones that are more than 3-5 years old, may be at risk of having their data stolen.
Be sure to update your software periodically and switch phones every 5 years so that your smartphone and data is protected. Also, if you find any funny calls from unknown numbers, texts with malicious links and seemingly shady content, run it through our reverse phone lookup search and find out the identity of the person working behind the phone number to steal your personal information and device data via such means.
Disclaimer:
The above is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute a legal advice or specific recommendations in any way.
