Whatsapp | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

WhatsApp is updating its messaging app so that every text message and voice call will be encrypted for the company's one billion users. Yes, Whatsapp has finally implemented full end-to-end encryption , as promised a year ago. This means, from now every message, image or voice call you made will be secured by end-to-end encryption so that only you and the person you're communicating with can read the content of the message, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. In other words, this also means that WhatsApp would not be able to comply with any court order that demands access to the content of any conversation happens over its service. Starting today, you will see a notification on your WhatsApp conversation screen as your messenger becomes end-to-end encrypted, as shown in the screenshot. "Message you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption. Tap for more info."  "This is because your messages are secured with a lock,

Before winding up the dispute of Apple and FBI over encryption, another buzz on the Whatsapp Snooping is now the hot debate on the court bench. In the wake of WhatsApp's move to offer end-to-end encryption to text messages as well as VoIP calls made through its app, federal authorities have not been able to execute wiretapping warrants on WhatsApp users. Though the US Department of Justice was discussing how to proceed with a continuing criminal investigation, the government is considering legal proceedings similar to those involved with Apple. According to the New York Times , as recently as this past week, a federal judge had approved a wiretap in a criminal investigation, but WhatsApp's encryption hindered investigators. Since any court officials have not made a final decision, the Department of Justice is very keen to drag Whatsapp into the Encryption fight war zone similar to the ongoing San Bernardino case . In San Bernardino case, the DoJ was gr

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

Apple is not the only technology giant battling against authorities over a court order; Facebook is also facing the same. Brazil's federal police arrested Facebook Latin America Vice President for failing to comply with court orders to help investigators in a drug trafficking case that involves WhatsApp, a popular messaging app owned by Facebook that has over 100 Million users in Brazil. Facebook VP Diego Jorge Dzodan was arrested on his way to work in São Paulo, Brazil today because the company refused to provide details of a WhatsApp user involved in organized crime and drug trafficking. Dzodan is still in police custody and is responding to police questioning in Sao Paulo, Local media reported . According to a statement released by a spokesperson from WhatsApp: "We are disappointed that law enforcement took this extreme step. WhatsApp cannot provide information we do not have. We cooperated to the full extent of our ability in this case, and while we re

Recently the Facebook-owned messaging app dropped its $1 annual subscription fee to make WhatsApp Free for Lifetime . Now, WhatsApp has plans to introduce a new feature that would allow its users to integrate their Facebook accounts with the most widely used messaging app. So far, the social media giant has been focusing on its own messaging platform, Messenger and both WhatsApp and Facebook have been working separately in terms of adding new features. WhatsApp to Share User Data With Facebook Android developer Javier Santos spotted a new feature in the latest beta build of WhatsApp, which indicates that soon you'll start seeing some features interconnected between WhatsApp and Facebook. The feature (optional, for now), dubbed " Share my account info ," when selected will share your personal WhatsApp account information with Facebook in order "to improve your Facebook experience," according to the description. Although it's uncle

Good News for WhatsApp users! The widely popular messaging service is going completely free. And you'll be able to use WhatsApp without paying a penny. Old WhatsApp users might not be aware of this, but WhatsApp introduced the subscription fees for its service a few years ago, forcing new users to pay an annual 99 cents (~$1) subscription fee after the first year. However, WhatsApp announced Monday that the Facebook-owned company is dropping its annual subscription fee to make its service free to all users. While announcing the plan today, WhatsApp's founder Jan Koum stated that the annual subscription fee was still a barrier to some users. "As we have grown, we have found that this approach has not worked well," WhatsApp admitted in a company blog post today. "Many WhatsApp users do not have a debit or credit card number, and they worried they'd lose access to their friends and family after their first year." What will be What

Raise your hands if you want Free Video Calling feature in WhatsApp. I am in, and I think most of you people. And the good news is that it looks like WhatsApp's much-awaited Free Video Calling feature is on its way, according to the recently leaked screenshots. Free Video Calling Feature in WhatsApp German technology blog Macerkopf.de has posted what it claims are screenshots from an unreleased version of the popular messaging client WhatsApp for iOS. The screenshots are from an unreleased version of the software ( version 2.12.16.2 ), which is currently being tested internally, but at present it is not clear whether or not those screenshots are legitimate. But, if the leaked screenshots are real, and WhatsApp adds the Free Video Calling feature , then the company could take an enormous bite out of some of its top rival. WhatsApp Video Calling feature will allow you to make video calls to your friends and family anywhere in the world for free as l

What would require crashing the wildly popular WhatsApp messaging application? Nearly 4000 Smileys . Yes, you can crash your friends'  WhatsApp , both WhatsApp Web and mobile application, by sending them not any specially crafted messages, but just Smileys. Indrajeet Bhuyan , an independent researcher, has reported The Hacker News a new bug in WhatsApp that could allow anyone to remotely crash most popular messaging app just by sending nearly 4000 emojis to the target user, thereby affecting up to 1 Billion users. Bhuyan is the same researcher who reported a very popular WhatsApp crash bug last year that required 2000 words ( 2kb in size ) message in the special character set to remotely crash Whatsapp messenger app. After this discovery, the company patched the bug by setting up the limits of characters in WhatsApp text messages, but unfortunately, it failed to set up limits for smileys send via WhatsApp. "In WhatsApp Web, Whatsapp allows 65500-660

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

What if your phone suddenly slips into a bathtub? Maybe you'll end up losing all your important data, more specifically, your WhatsApp photos, videos, Voice Notes and Chat Data that flows through your chats. Sounds scary, isn't it?  But, now you need not worry if your phone suddenly died or broke – Thanks to the new integration to your favorite messaging app WhatsApp with Google Drive. Google and Facebook announced a partnership that will bring Google Drive integration to WhatsApp for Android, allowing you to automatically backup all your chat messages and multimedia content regularly to the cloud. BackUp Your WhatsApp Data to Google Drive With Google Drive integration, you can create a private backup of your: Chat History Voice Messages Photos Videos …to "keep your memory safe," Google says. You can also decide to backup your WhatsApp data: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Not at All. Data BackUp and Recovery with Enc

After rolling out WhatsApp's Free Voice Calling feature for Android users late last month, the widely popular messaging service has started to roll out the feature to iOS users. Now iOS users can enjoy making free voice calls through WhatsApp, as the new version of the messenger is now live in the iOS App Store with support to calling. WhatsApp calling feature allows you to call your friends and family anywhere in the world for free as long as you have a Wi-Fi network or a working data plan on your registered number. The full description of the WhatsApp Calling feature on the App Store page reads: " Call your friends and family using WhatsApp for free, even if they are in another country. WhatsApp calls use your phone's Internet connection rather than your cellular plan's voice minutes (Data charges may apply) Note: WhatsApp Calling is rolling out slowly over the next several weeks. " The last line indicates that the feature, so far, is not actually a

Are you looking for methods on how to run two WhatsApp accounts in one phone, or how to use 2 WhatsApp in 1 phone? In this tutorial, we have shared various techniques that allow mobile users to run multiple or dual WhatsApp accounts in one single phone. WhatsApp is one of the most popular and commonly used Instant messaging apps these days, and due to its simplicity and easy-to-use interface, users are able to use it without any hassle. WhatsApp lets its users send and receive messages that are end-to-end encrypted so that only you and the person you're communicating with can read the content of the message, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. Each and everything on WhatsApp comes quite handy, but what is the most disturbing part that you come across? For me it is... How to install 2 WhatsApp accounts in 1 Android smartphone? If you have a dual SIM smartphone, you might be willing to enjoy two separate WhatsApp accounts for your two different phone number. Is

Is Facebook planning to integrate WhatsApp Messenger into its ' Facebook for Android ' app? Yes, this might be possible soon. According to latest rumours, Facebook is reportedly working on it. The social network giant, Facebook has begun testing a new feature in its Facebook app for Android that includes the first integration of WhatsApp Messenger, according to a blogger. WHATSAPP INTEGRATION INTO FACEBOOK APP According to this update, a year after of acquiring WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook has only added a 'Send' button with the WhatsApp icon. This WhatsApp ' send ' will work as part of the status actions options that appear under each status update. It means that Facebook for Android users soon may have this particular version of Facebook app with a dedicated WhatsApp button that would allow an Android user to share posts, status and anything else directly through WhatsApp by just clicking the Share button. If rumours are true, th

While WhatsApp is very reserved to its new calling feature, cyber scammers are targeting WhatsApp users across the world by circulating fake messages inviting users to activate the new ' WhatsApp calling feature for Android'  that infects their smartphones with malicious apps. If you receive an invitation message from any of your friend saying, "Hey, I'm inviting you to try WhatsApp Free Voice Calling feature, click here to activate now —> https://WhatsappCalling.com" ,  BEWARE! It is a Scam . The popular messaging app has begun rolling out its much-awaited Free Voice Calling feature — similar to other instant messaging apps like Skype and Viber — to Android users which allows users to make voice calls using Internet. However, for now, the free WhatsApp calling feature is invite-only and only appears to work for people running the latest version of WhatsApp app for Android on a Google Nexus 5 phone running the latest Android 5.0.1 Lollipop . H

It's been a long time coming, but now the users of Firefox and Opera browsers don't need to rely on the Chrome browser to access WhatsApp Web client, as the most popular smartphone messaging service has announced that the Web-based version of its service now works on Firefox and Opera web browsers   too. WHATSAPP WEB AVAILABLE FOR OPERA & FIREFOX Almost a month ago, WhatsApp launched the web client of its service but the access was limited only to the Google Chrome users. Now, the company is giving more choices to desktop users by launching WhatsApp Web Today for Opera and Firefox browsers , though you'll still have to wait a little long if you're a Safari user. WhatsApp Web is nothing than an extension of the core mobile WhatsApp application. It syncs conversations from your smartphone devices to your PCs, with everything stored on the mobile device itself. HOW TO USE WHATSAPP ON PC/DESKTOP In order to install WhatsApp web in your PC or laptop running

Cybercriminals are known to take advantage of everything that captures public attention in order to spread malware, and the recently launched web client of the most popular WhatsApp messaging application seems to be their next target. Last month, the messaging giant WhatsApp, with 700 million users worldwide, finally launched its web client to the public. The feature is called " WhatsApp Web ," which gives its users the ability to read and send messages directly from their web browsers. FAKE WHATSAPP WEB SPREADING BANKING TROJANS However, malicious hackers have taken the advantage of the latest WhatsApp Web and have started fooling users all over the world with fake downloads masquerading as a desktop variant of the WhatsApp mobile application. Security researchers at Kaspersky Labs have spotted a seemingly genuine WhatsApp Web for Windows in spam campaign available for fake download that actually spreads financial malware Trojans to the systems worldwide.

In spite of all the things smartphones can do, messaging remains one of the most popular activities. Popular messaging apps like WhatsApp , Viber, WeChat  support text messages, voice calls, photo & video sharing features, but there is no provision for sharing every file types on these amazing messengers. But, some or the other day, we all got struck into an awkward situation where we have to share PDF, apk or zip files with our friends while chatting. However using any other 3rd-party file sharing services, we can share image, video, audio, zip files or any other file type with our friends, but it would be a lengthy process and sometimes require to use computer. Gone are the days when you relied on your computer to get all of your work done. Telegram Messenger , the most popular and ultra secure messaging application, is now offering file sharing feature that allows its users to share large files and documents (up to 1.5GB) securely . Telegram is a messaging a

WhatsApp is again in news but this time not for any security holes, but for its all new and, of course, much-awaited Free Voice Calling feature — similar to other instant messaging apps like Skype and Viber allow users to make voice calls using Internet. After launching its much-awaited Web client (dubbed WhatsApp Web ) to Android users, the most popular mobile messaging application WhatsApp has started rolling out the promised free voice calling feature, and this time again to Android users first. Late last night, some screenshots of WhatsApp's new voice calling feature appeared on Reddit. Reportedly, this new feature will allow WhatsApp users to make free voice calls to their online pals by simply tapping your phone icon to call their WhatsApp friends. The report broke when a Reddit user ( pradnesh07 ) received a WhatsApp call from a friend, and this is how the feature get activated. The free voice calling feature, for now, seems to be invite-only. So, if you still have to

The most popular smartphone messaging service WhatsApp is now able to communicate with friends from their PC. No Rumours at all !! Enjoy WhatsApp from your desktop from now on. Last month, it was leaked that Whatsapp was working on a web client and finally from today they are introducing it to the public. The feature is called " WhatsApp Web ," which gives its users the ability to read and send messages directly from their web browsers. HOW TO USE WHATSAPP ON PC/DESKTOP Interested WhatsApp users simply need to open Chrome and navigate to https://web.whatsapp.com A QR code will appear on the web page, which must be scanned using WhatsApp mobile application to activate the service. By scanning the  QR code  that appears, users will automatically have paired their mobile WhatsApp with the WhatsApp web client, as shown.  WhatsApp Web requires that you install and run the latest Whatsapp version of the Android app on your phone. The feature currently works on