There has been a compromise to the settings of WhatsApp due to a spyware attack and changing the listed three settings can ensure security.
Hacks that are malicious are back again and causing problems with WhatsApp. There are multiple users who have been tricked and had to surrender their accounts. The attackers have targeted the contacts of the users with financial and malware scams.
This means, WhatsApp is not fully secure, but there are safeguards to stop the hijacking of your account. It is important to change the settings immediately.
The hack of WhatsApp is totally dependent on social engineering. The hijackers trick you into sharing an SMS code that they have sent to your phone from an account that has already been hijacked. This helps the attacker to take over your account also. It takes a lot of effort and time to get the account back.
This becomes all the more difficult as the attacker adds additional security settings to delay the process and confuse you.
You can protect not only against this but also any other weaknesses in the security of your WhatsApp app. All you need to do is change some settings. It is important that WhatsApp is more secure.
As known, this WhatsApp is specifically designed for use by the consumer, but, as seen, security has taken a back seat.
This app is popular and convenient to use due to its simplicity. This has now become a default-SMS for most. It s important to make this more secure by changing the three settings listed below.
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Verification of WhatsApp Account
There is two step verification’ by WhatsApp. This allows you to enter into the app a six-digit code. This is a different code and not the code that is sent by WhatsApp via SMS when you are installing and registering the app on a new phone. A hacker cannot complete any hijack without knowing this two-step verification code.
It is important that everyone who is using WhatsApp, use this setting for the much-required security. It is equally important that WhatsApp makes this mandatory just like other financial apps.
Go to ‘Settings’ in WhatsApp, go to ‘Account’. Here you have the option of ‘two-step verification’. You can set up an e-mail address and PIN for use as a back-up if you forget the set PIN. It is important to remember that you cannot share this PIN with anyone.
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Saving Photos and Videos
Photos and videos are handled in a perilous manner by WhatsApp. When you receive a photo or a video from any of your contacts on WhatsApp, these are saved to the phone’s album. Though convenient, this is definitely dangerous. You need to ensure that you save videos and photos only when you are able to vouch for the sender and if you are sure that the videos and photos were taken by a known person. These should not be taken from any websites and then shared.
Viewing a media file within the WhatsApp app is safe but once you save the file on your phone, there is a risk that this runs malware or even crash your apps or device if it is hiding a malicious code.
Go to the ‘Settings’ on WhatsApp, go to ‘Chats’, disable ‘save to camera roll’.
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Protection of Privacy
This third setting is all about protecting your privacy and preventing the data to be used for social engineering attacks.
Go to ‘Settings’ and ‘Account’ and then to ‘Privacy’. You have the choice of deciding who can see your ‘last seen’ as well as your photo and profile.
You also have the choice of limiting who can add you to their group. In both these cases, you can either choose only contacts or everyone. It is advisable not to set this to everyone and limit this only to your contacts.
It is important that you limit the ‘group’ settings as this will not allow any hacker to add you to their group and send you attachments or photos.
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Using the ‘Back-up’ Option
Presently, the option for back-up by WhatsApp impacts those using iPhone more than those using Android. Android users have the choice of opting for the local backup alternative. These backups can help you in protecting your chat histories in case of losing your device. You also have mechanisms to transfer these histories to your new device.
You need to remember with this back-up of chat history, you lose the ‘end-to-end-encryption’. The content can be accessed by Google or Apple. To keep your chat history under control on Android, you can make use of the local back-up and move the files to an external drive.
You can disable the ‘cloud back-ups’. Go to ‘Settings’, go to ‘Chats’ and then ‘Chats Backup’.
Though WhatsApp is not as secure but is well suited for the different requirements of messaging. The security is not all that bad for everyday use. This has got a huge ‘user’ base and thus, almost everyone you know might be using this. In other words, this can work well as compared to the SMS option.
