Update Your WhatsApp Account Right Now

Update Your WhatsApp Account Right Now

WhatsApp users everywhere: Update your app now. A vulnerability in the app has allowed one company to install surveillance software on both iPhones and Android phones by calling users on the app, regardless of whether they answered. Worse, after a call was placed and software installed, the call could also be removed from the log, leaving no evidence that a call ever occurred.

According to WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned app with over 1.5 billion users, it’s not currently known how many users have been targeted.

As reported by the Financial Times, attackers from an Israeli company, NSO Group, are responsible for the breach. The company is known for its “Pegasus” malware—supposedly limited to use by intelligence agencies—and can be used to collect data including location, emails, contacts, browser history, and the ability to turn on any user’s microphone and camera. NSO Group markets this software for its ability to stop crime and terrorism.

WhatsApp learned of the hack earlier this month, and as of Monday, is urging users to update the app as a precaution. “We have briefed a number of human rights organisations to share the information we can, and to work with them to notify civil society,” WhatsApp said in a statement.

This news comes after a UK-based lawyer — involved in a civil case between a number of Mexican journalists and government critics suing NSO Group in Israel — was reportedly targeted by this very software.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments