No one should ever be surprised when Facebook has a software bug that exposes users’ personal data to everyone in the world. However, the WhatsApp chat app was supposedly a safe and secure (encrypted) app that protected you from hackers, corporations, and governments that spy on private conversations. Admittedly, WhatsApp was not created by Facebook. Instead, Facebook bought the company that produces WhatsApp.
The WhatsApp home page at https://www.whatsapp.com/ claims:
“Simple. Secure. Reliable messaging.”
Obviously, that’s not true. WhatsApp may still be simple but it is neither secure nor reliable.
We don’t yet know if this particular bug existed before or after the acquisition by Facebook. However, the company that has had so many security and privacy problems has still another black eye.
Hmmm, can a corporation have more than two blackened eyes?
A new report details a security bug discovered in the Facebook-owned WhatsApp chat tool that allowed hackers to take over a user’s profile if they answered an incoming video call from a bad actor. Facebook claims that the bug has already been fixed.
Details may be found in an article by Angela Moon and Jack Stubbs in the Reuters News web site at: https://reut.rs/2EeQ9Ui.
If you have been using WhatApp, you might want to switch to Signal at https://signal.org/. It is better, is free, and supports encrypted text messaging, encrypted two-way voice calls, and encrypted two-way video conversations. As an Open Source project supported by grants and donations, Signal has nothing to hide. Anyone can view the Signal source code to look for bugs and to verify there are no ads, no affiliate marketers, and no creepy tracking.
Again, the free Signal app is available at https://signal.org/.
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Categories: Online Privacy & Security
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