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Experts Warn of Privacy Risks Caused by Link Previews in Messaging Apps

Experts Warn of Privacy Risks Caused by Link Previews in Messaging Apps

Oct 26, 2020
Cybersecurity researchers over the weekend disclosed new security risks associated with link previews in popular messaging apps that cause the services to leak IP addresses, expose links sent via end-to-end encrypted chats, and even unnecessarily download gigabytes of data stealthily in the background. "Links shared in chats may contain private information intended only for the recipients," researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk  said . "This could be bills, contracts, medical records, or anything that may be confidential." "Apps that rely on servers to generate link previews may be violating the privacy of their users by sending links shared in a private chat to their servers." Generating Link Previews at the Sender/Receiver Side Link previews are a common feature in most chat apps, making it easy to display a visual preview and a brief description of the shared link. Although apps like  Signal  and  Wire  give users the option to turn on/off l
WhatsApp 'Delete for Everyone' Doesn't Delete Media Files Sent to iPhone Users

WhatsApp 'Delete for Everyone' Doesn't Delete Media Files Sent to iPhone Users

Sep 16, 2019
Mistakenly sent a picture to someone via WhatsApp that you shouldn't have? Well, we've all been there, but what's more unfortunate is that the 'Delete for Everyone' feature WhatsApp introduced two years ago contains an unpatched privacy bug, leaving its users with false sense of privacy. WhatsApp and its rival Telegram messenger offer "Delete for Everyone," a potentially life-saving feature on which millions of people today rely to escape the awkwardness of mistakenly sending messages / pictures / videos to the wrong person. As the name indicates, the ' Delete for Everyone ' feature is intended to unsend mistakenly sent inappropriate messages—including text, photos and videos—from the recipient's phone, or from the phones of all members of a group. In the case of WhatsApp, the feature is only available within 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds of sending a message you want to delete, which is fine and a fair use case. However, it tur
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Viber adds End-to-End Encryption and PIN protected Hidden Chats features

Viber adds End-to-End Encryption and PIN protected Hidden Chats features

Apr 19, 2016
In Brief Viber, the popular mobile messaging app announced Tuesday that it has added full end-to-end encryption for video, voice and text message services for its millions of users. Here, the end-to-end encryption means only you and the person you are communicating with can read the content, and nobody in between, not even the company and if court orders company to provide user data, they will get only the heaps of encrypted data. Viber is the latest messaging platform to join WhatsApp , Telegram , and Apple iMessage , who strengthened their default privacy features in recent times. Founded in 2010 and acquired by Japanese e-commerce titan Rakuten for $900 Million in 2014, Viber is currently being used by more than 700 Million users globally across Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and desktop, the company claimed in a blog post published today. The move comes just a couple of weeks after Facebook-owned Whatsapp messaging app implemented full end-to-end encryption by default
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
WhatsApp Blocks Links to Telegram Messenger (Its biggest Competitor)

WhatsApp Blocks Links to Telegram Messenger (Its biggest Competitor)

Dec 01, 2015
It seems like Facebook-owned popular messaging service WhatsApp is blocking links to rival messaging applications – at least Telegram app  for now. Telegram users are noticing that WhatsApp is blocking any links to the privacy-oriented messaging service Telegram.me. Although users are free to send or receive Telegram links on WhatsApp, the links appear as non-clickable that you cannot copy or forward. This strange behavior was first noticed this morning by Telegram users over on Reddit. The URLs – which are generally automatically made clickable – still appeared as plain text messages, but they didn't register as hyperlinks, blocking users from copying or forwarding them to other users or other apps. Read Also: How to Auto-BackUp Your WhatsApp Data to Google Drive with Encryption . In general, this odd behavior is done with malicious URLs such as malware or spam. The Culprit However, this strange behavior was not exhibited on every device. Only W
WhatsApp Could Offer 'Like' and 'Mark as Unread' Features Soon

WhatsApp Could Offer 'Like' and 'Mark as Unread' Features Soon

Jul 11, 2015
The popular instant messaging app WhatsApp might adopt some features from its parent company, Facebook. The messaging giant is testing some new features that might be coming to the app soon. The features include a 'Like' button similar to that of Facebook and a 'Mark as Unread' feature for chat messages, AndroidPit reports . 'Like' Button for Images Ilhan Pektas, WhatsApp beta tester, recently claimed that a future WhatsApp update will introduce a 'Like' button for images, indicating the company might allow users to Like their friend's profile picture and images shared in groups as well. There aren't many details about the new features yet, but if implemented, Like button feature is something that could improve group chats. 'Mark as Unread' Feature to Chats Besides implementing Like button, WhatsApp is also planning to introduce a 'Mark as Unread' feature to chat messages that will offer recipients abil
New Facebook 'Nearby Friends' Can Track Your GPS Location Continuously

New Facebook 'Nearby Friends' Can Track Your GPS Location Continuously

Apr 21, 2014
Facebook – one of the popular social networking website that connects you worldwide with your friends, families, and many more to your network. Now, Facebook is introducing a new feature named "Nearby Friends" for its Android and iPhone mobile users that will allow them to find their friends when they are nearby. Earlier this month, Facebook added new voice calling feature over Internet functionality for its Messenger app worldwide, that helps its users make free voice calls to their online pals by just tapping the blue phone icon and now Facebook is rolling out its new feature which is completely optional, that means you can turn it ON or OFF at anytime accordingly. LOCATION SHARING TO LIMITED NETWORK If you enable the " Nearby Friends " feature, it's only your friends (friends or close friends or specific friends list) who are able to know your GPS location and nobody else, and that too only if you and your friends both have turned on the 'Nearby Friends' feature on
Why Facebook is buying WhatsApp for $19 Billion?

Why Facebook is buying WhatsApp for $19 Billion?

Feb 21, 2014
Popular Smartphone Messaging app  WhatsApp 's $19 billion acquisition by Social Network giant Facebook  made Headlines this week. While Some are applauding the move, and many other users are worried about WhatsApp's future and their privacy after this acquisition. Why So Serious? WhatsApp currently having 450 million active users and processes 50 billion messages a day. Service charges a nominal service fee of $1/year, that means Facebook is buying at $42.22 per user. $19 Billion / 450 million users  = $42.22 per user These figures show ,  obviously future revenue from WhatsApp can't cover the acquisition cost in the short or mid-term. " You can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication. There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product. " WhatsApp founder said in a  blog post . So, What Facebook is
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