How Whatsapp spy on us. Read the article in full, I recommend it. One of the unwritten laws of computer science provides that the more a certain technology gains people's trust, the greater the possibility that malicious people will try to use it to propagate various types of malware (viruses, worms, Trojans, and so on).
WhatsApp is one of the instant messaging applications most used by users of smartphones and tablets, so it is quite obvious that cybercriminals began to target it.
The pirate prepares an executable program (for example the classic EXE or a BAT script for Windows) and translates it not into binary code but into base64 code. The bummer chooses a phone number to target (each WhatsApp account is associated with a number). Of course, he can randomly proceed with a random telephone number generator.
The "victim" user is contacted by the pirate, who offers him an electronic business card with a vCard extension (which is a simple text written in a specific language) to introduce himself.
How Whatsapp spy on us
In recent times, however, much more harmful malware is spreading, as it is a real spyware and no more than a worm: therefore it does not stop to be annoying, but instead steals all the photographs and information personal data on our device.
This spyware also spreads through fake business cards in vCard format and was intentionally designed for the web version of WhatsApp - just accept the deceptive business card to get infected.
Once our account is damaged by spyware, the program can decrypt our conversations and take our pictures or videos. And spyware authors can have access to all this data, doing what they want with it - even putting our private images on the web.
What are the risks of WhatsApp, as in the web version as in the smartphone version? Or, better said, what is the weak point of this instant messaging application? The main problem is psychological and social: WhatsApp allows everyone to contact everyone, allowing users to recognize each other exclusively by phone number.
This benefits pirates, who can easily find a victim's phone number and then contact her. And it disadvantages users, who do not have many elements to understand who they are talking to: frankly we should be suspicious if we receive a message from an individual or a telephone number we do not know.
But users often have a lot of faith in a system that appears secure and tend to approve friends and contacts from anyone, even before verifying their identity.
The introduction of the web variant of the messaging client made the task easier for spies. And unfortunately, protecting yourself has become more complex. All of us who use WhatsApp are then at risk of interception and any attacker, in a short time, can steal and have control of our account.
To do this, he just needs to have the victim's smartphone in his hands for a few seconds. So start WhatsApp and, from the Settings menu, click on WhatsApp Web.
On your computer, you then connect to the site https: // web.whatsapp.com and scan with the victim's smartphone, using the reader integrated in WhatsApp itself, the QR Code that appears on the screen.
He can then put away the victim's phone and scroll through his conversations with his eyes.
The victim, at this point, has only one way to understand if someone is spying on him and take the right countermeasures: from the WhatsApp Settings menu he must click again on WhatsApp Web.
If in the screen that appears there are connected computers that are not yours, you must immediately click on Disconnect from all computers.
😉 😉 😉
Further Reading:
- How to share WhatsApp status as a story on Facebook
- How to make WhatsApp calls using the Google Assistant
- How to know if Whatsapp is spying on me
- How to enable WhatsApp two-factor authentication for Android
- Whatsapp Web your Android
