WhatsApp had announced that all its chats are protected by end-to-end encryption.
This virtually means that only the sender and receiver will be able to read the messages in a conversation. Telegram offers end-to-end encryption too in secret chats.
But according to a set of videos released on Forbes, it seems hackers will be able to read your WhatsApp and Telegram conversations with relative ease if they wanted to.
The videos show the ease with which WhatsApp and Telegram accounts are hijacked. These chat services use your phone number and that means hackers can take advantage of known flaws in wireless communication standards to defile your privacy.
Specifically, SS7 vulnerabilities are used to trick a telecom operator that the hacker’s phone has the same number as the target. Since WhatsApp is tied to a phone number, all the hacker has to do to get access to someone’s account is to clone the target’s device using these vulnerabilities.
Once a verification code has been obtained from WhatsApp, these hackers will be able to access your WhatsApp messages. They'll even be able to retrieve a history of messages in case they’re backed up to the cloud.
You can see the videos showcasing the hacks below.
The implications of this are quite serious and it can only be hoped that something is done about it as soon as possible.
