We all know that earlier this week, the well-known instant messaging app WhatsApp announced that the app had been hacked and the NSO Group of Israel could steal mobile data by simply making a call through the Pegasus spyware. Even the creator of the well-known and one of the most secure instant messaging apps, of course, Telegram took the opportunity to criticize that the company has introduced these vulnerabilities purposely as backdoors.
However, the most used instant messaging app, WhatsApp, patched the bug with its new version of the app launched this week, but here the fact is that millions of users are still vulnerable.
OMG! WhatsApp Hackers Still Have Access To Huge Numbers Of Phones
Earlier this week, the well-known instant messaging app WhatsApp announced that the app had been hacked and the NSO Group of Israel could steal mobile data by simply making a call through the Pegasus spyware.
Even the creator of the well-known and one of the most secure instant messaging apps, of course, Telegram took the opportunity to criticize that the company has introduced these vulnerabilities purposely as backdoors. However, the most used instant messaging app, WhatsApp, patched the bug with its new version of the app launched this week, but the fact is that millions of users are still vulnerable.
Also Read: How To Switch From GBWhatsApp To WhatsApp Without Losing Chats
The WhatsApp hackers still have access to vast numbers of phones
The problem is that not everyone updates the WhatsApp application frequently, even though they are constantly updated alone without user interaction. An investigation has revealed this by Wandera, a privately held company developing mobile security solutions.
As we toltold you, Wandera is a security company that manages the security of the mobile phones of companies like Rolex, Deloitte, and General Electric, and has a database of one million mobile workers of these and other companies, of which 30% have installed WhatsApp.
With this, we have a relatively significant sample of 300,000 devices to see how many have the latest version of WhatsApp installed, and the figures are terrifying. According to the result, 80.2% of the mobiles with iOS in that sample were not updated to recent versions. At the same time, in the case of Android, the figure is relatively lower, down to 55.4% of devices that had not updated and remained vulnerable.
One of the company’s clients, whose name has not been revealed, has 5000 devices vulnerable to hacking and data theft, including many private ones related to the company. Any company that contracted NSO Group’s services could use the vulnerability and install the spyware developed by the company to steal the data simply by making a call. It was not necessary to even take the call to be infected.
However, the fact is that the company has not notified its users directly in any of the cases, and all it has done has been to issue a press release. Neither on Twitter (with 2.7 million followers) nor Facebook (with 31 million followers), neither its blog nor on the Google Play Store, nor even the App Store.
I find WhatsApp’s description of their latest update hilarious. It’s all YAY STICKERS and leaves out “now it’s a bit harder for governments to spy on you using terrifying software”. Also: “secure”. #Pegasus pic.twitter.com/UTuhht1F6c
— lisa van wyk (@swimlittlefish) May 15, 2019
In fact, in the App Store, all they have put among the news is that the stickers are seen in the notifications. And it clearly shows that WhatsApp has shallow respect for its users if it thinks that they prefer to update the app to see stickers in the messages instead of notifying all its users about the hack so that they can simply update their app now.
Also Read: Top 5 Best WhatsApp Mod Apps For Android
WhatsApp is currently working on having its own verified channel, just like Telegram, to deliver news, changelogs, or any message they want to communicate to users. This would be an ideal method to inform users to update immediately, but currently, the app does not use any direct route to inform its users.
Now without wasting much time, what we should do immediately is update WhatsApp simply to avoid hacking. Currently, it is almost impossible to know if you have been hacked or not; if we receive a call, once the mobile has been hacked, they can simply erase the notification and leave no trace. So, what do you think about this? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below. And if you liked this post, do not forget to share this post with your friends and family.
