“Hackers” became one among the main concerns for the WhatsApp users and other people are at the fear of loss of access to their account. If a person’s profession is sensitive to privacy or if the users are fighting against an oppressive government, they are at high risk or prone to such cyber attackers.
The other users can disregard WhatsApp spyware news as they are at least not prone to this kind of advanced cyber-attack. Although the WhatsApp Account is likely to be at risk from some type of attack yet precaution is the best measure to safety as it is something through which, the user can quickly defend themselves. However, a user can face the odds if he has left himself vulnerable to such attackers.
The hack is a socially programmed hacking of SMS authentication codes, allowing hackers to hijack accounts then use those accounts to threaten victims’ contacts with money demands or malware-based attachments.
The WhatsApp account of a user is connected to their phone number. When they launch WhatsApp on a new computer, the app doesn’t recognize the phone number on which it was built. Instead, it asks the user for their phone number, and then it sends the user a verification code on their number through which the user can authenticate themselves to be the valid user of that particular account.
This SMS method gives access to a user to use the account on other numbers and devices also. This has become the major defense loophole that the attackers have been trying to make use of since the last year.
The Hacker can get hold of your number from any friend’s hacked page.
They can simply download WhatsApp on any smartphone and type their target’s phone number as the account number.
The device then sends the user the required Authentication code as an SMS.
The attacker pretends to be a relative of the user and claims to have been locked out of their device and request the user to give the verification code.
This verification code is none other than the WhatsApp security code for the user’s account. As soon as the user gives the code to the Hacker, they automatically hijack the user’s account. The Hacker would not have a database of the users’ contacts or message history, so they will access the latest communications and see the details and messages of other users in the group that the user belongs to. As the hacker gets access to the user’s account, he can easily message the contacts of the user.
It needs just 30 seconds to get this right. There are certain measures that the users should be aware of and can secure their accounts from such hackers. WhatsApp has a surefire way to keep the account from being hacked in this manner. In addition to the six-digit SMS authentication code, WhatsApp sends a code to validate a fresh device. The software also enables the user to configure their six-digit PIN. The two numbers are different but both are required to allow access to a new device.
Attackers set up PINs in hacked accounts to make it more complicated to retrieve accounts but as soon as the user reinstalls the software, they are required to enter a PIN which they don’t have. WhatsApp has been smart to address to this trap and to prevent and protect the owner’s access, it has provided the user with the device verification-code and as soon as the user enters this code, the Hacker is shut out, but the account owner also has to wait for seven days to restore and regain the ownership of his account.
It is very uncommon for WhatsApp not to respond to support queries to help recover a compromised account. Other than that, they also provide specific information on the web section to clarify what are the required measures to be taken by the users.
- The hackers make it difficult to recover an account, yet a user has to set up a Pin-code as not doing so leaves the user exposed and vulnerable. The steps to be followed for doing so are:
- Go to Account-Two Step Verification in the app’s settings
- Type code according to the preference of the user and an email address if in case the user forgets the code.
WhatsApp will regularly remind the user to enter the code while they use the app, which is partly for protection and partly to ensure that the user recalls the code, subject to how frequently the user switches between devices.
The most shocking fact is about the number of users who have not yet enabled this PIN code verification process, given all the alerts regarding this socially designed hack. There can be different traps to hack a user’s account and the approaches may as well approaches vary — including notifications that seem to come from WhatsApp itself telling the user to send back an SMS code.
It’s also shocking how many people get trapped. It just takes a user 30 seconds to secure their WhatsApp account with this two-step verification process and would help the user to prevent themselves from facing such a hassle of losing access to their account for 7 days Popular SEO Tools.
