How to Secure WhatsApp Chats from Data Breach

With more than 2 billion users globally, WhatsApp has emerged as one of the most important apps for daily communication. However, with increased access, the threat of privacy breaches has also increased. Instead of the end-to-end encryption feature of WhatsApp, the chats are often leaked into media without the knowledge of the person involved in the conversation. To date there have been so many such incidents, to know more about this watch our YouTube video, “WhatsApp Security Features | How Secure Are Your Messages?”

How Chats Are Prone To Data Breach?

Though the app offers end-to-end encryption of the chats, there are some loopholes because of which the chats get leaked. Some of the common mistakes committed by the users that cause data breaches in WhatsApp chats are given below:

• Non-encrypted Messages: Until you don’t change the setting of your WhatsApp to end-to-end message encryption, your chats will be non-encrypted automatically, hence prone to data breach.
• Non-encrypted Backups: Encrypting your chats will not be sufficient to save the data from theft; you also need to save your backup data. Hence, you need to encrypt your backup chats so that your messages including pictures and videos are not accessed by WhatsApp or by third parties.
• Giving Access To Other Person: If you have encrypted your chats, still your data can be leaked. This can be done through physical access to the electronic device your WhatsApp is logged into. In cases where you log in to your WhatsApp on someone else’s device, your chats can be read by the other person if you forget to logout from the device.

What Is End-To-End Encryption?

It is a method that secures your chats from third-party access. It ensures that the message sent can only be read by the receiver and can’t be accessed by any third party, including WhatsApp. It uses the code that ensures data safety by changing it with each message sent to the receiver.

Follow us at Lloyd Institute of Forensic Science to learn more about such topics.

How to Secure Your Chats?

Though it can’t be guaranteed that your chats are one hundred percent safe, we can make some efforts to do so. Some of the points that you should keep in mind to prevent your data from getting leaked are mentioned below. Follow these steps to prevent a data breach:

• Disable Chat backups completely,
• Do not log in your WhatsApp on any other device, if done then make sure to logout,
• Do not share any kind of OTP or passwords that give WhatsApp access to others,
• Use the “Disappearing Messages” feature as it automatically deletes the chats after seven days,
• Do not click on any unknown links,
• Use two-factor authentication methods.

As we have mentioned earlier these methods do not guarantee you one hundred percent safety, hence while communicating it’s your responsibility to act safely. You should have any objectionable chats on WhatsApp so you do not get stuck in any serious situation.