01 August,2016 03:04 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
Despite the introduction of end-to-end (E2E) encryption, WhatsApp messages that were deleted don't exactly disappear. They can be compromised and accessed by hackers easily within 30 seconds
WhatsApp hack
Despite the introduction of end-to-end (E2E) encryption, WhatsApp messages that were deleted don't exactly disappear. They can be compromised and accessed by hackers easily within 30 seconds, reveals the findings of a UAE-based non-profit online safety organisation named, Emirates Safer Internet Society (E-SAFE).
In a YouTube video (view embedded tweet above), they explain how unsuspecting users could be tricked by cyber intruders into giving access to their WhatsApp accounts.
Instant-messaging app WhatsApp rolled out end-to-end encryption in April this year, to potentially protect texts and voice calls of its over one billion users from hackers and "regimes". (Read more)
In a related survey, the E-SAFE team discovered that 8 out of 10 WhatsApp users fail to log out from the web application. This they say could pose a serious security threat.
Furthermore, security experts discovered that deleted WhatsApp chats continue to remain even after users have cleared their data. Although, WhatsApp marks the chats as deleted when the user deletes them, new data is not overwritten over deleted data, hence making them recoverable using forensic softwares.
This is because, deleted WhatsApp chats still remain in the Facebook-owned insta-messaging app's database. The flaw was discovered in the latest WhatsApp version on iPhone.
