In today’s data-driven world, data breaches can affect millions or possibly even billions of people at a time. This was seen in the recent alleged WhatsApp data breach controversy, which the company has denied.
Mashable India, a digital media platform, reported that according to a recent allegation from Cybernews, someone managed to hack into WhatsApp and acquire the personal information of almost 500 million users, which is now purportedly for sale.
Later , a WhatsApp spokesperson stated that there is no evidence of a “data leak” from the company.
However, data breaches are nothing new because even some of the biggest companies have had such incidents.Here are some tips that would be helpful in making WhatsApp more secure.
• Check chat encryption
Although all WhatsApp chats are encrypted by default, double-checking them while sharing sensitive information is still a good idea.
• Enable Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication provides protection by adding an extra layer of security to your account to ensure that your data isn’t accessed by someone else. So if a service supports this feature, then you should be using it.
• Turn Security notifications on
With this feature, every time a new device accesses an existing chat, a new security code is generated and a notification is sent when this security code changes.
• Encrypt cloud backups
WhatsApp backups on Google Drive are not encrypted by default. Without this feature, a major gap will remain in your privacy protection.
Turn on end-to-end encrypted backup, go to Settings – Chats – Chat Backup – End-to-end Encrypted Backup and tap Turn On.
• Check unknown links
These days, it could be difficult to determine whether certain scam messages and links are malicious.
Copy the link and check it on sites like Norton
Safe Web, PhishTank, and others to prevent clicking on them.
