QUINCY (WGEM) – Following Wednesday’s cyber attack in the United States, the security of “safer” messaging apps such as WhatsApp has come into question.
Cyber attacks are nothing new, but the scale of the cyber attack suffered in the United States raised questions about data encryption.
In a statement from the FBI, smartphone users were urged to use alternative messaging apps such as WhatsApp to protect their data. However, their security might not be as efficient as previously believed.
“The reality is it’s no more safe than iMessage or any of them. Yahoo messenger is probably just as safe,” explained Tigerhawk Technologies CEO J.R. Bareis.
While it is true that WhatsApp is technically better at encrypting messages, there is no guarantee that it can truly protect people from hackers. The same goes for downloadable protection software.
“All of it’s hackable. All of it has entry points,” Bareis added, “If you’re sending data that could really compromise you, then why are you sending it?”
According to DemandSage.com, a data research company, there are around 100 million WhatsApp users in the United States and over two billion worldwide. That translates to a lot of data that is ripe for the picking for hackers.
“The more you have to lose, the more you could actually lose. That’s what we tell people about being secure online,” Bareis explained.
The reality is that all digital messaging goes from the sender, to a server, and then to the recipient. If the server is compromised, the data received by it can be seen by anyone.
“Those middle-man situations are where we really see the problem,” Bareis said.
The difference between apps like WhatsApp and regular text messaging is the level of encryption within the servers. However, just because the server may be harder to break into, hackers seem to always find a way.
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