WhatsApp Now Includes Three More Security Features That Can be Enabled to Protect Your Account

By a wide margin, the most widely used messaging platform currently available is WhatsApp. However, this level of fame comes with a cost. Hackers will try to access your WhatsApp account using various methods, such as SIM swaps and other assaults. Even while the messaging platform Meta owns provides many safety and privacy features, such as end-to-end encrypted backups and chats, these features are useless in situations like these. WhatsApp is now introducing many new security features to rectify these situations.

When you move to a new device, WhatsApp will ask you to enter a one-time password (OTP) provided to your phone for verification purposes. This is the case at the moment. If you do not use two-step authentication, a hacker might access your WhatsApp account by using a SIM swap attack or by obtaining the OTP in another way. This would only be possible if you did not enable two-step authentication. With Account Protect, WhatsApp hopes to prevent this from happening.

When upgrading to a new phone, WhatsApp will notify your previous handset, requesting confirmation that you are moving phones. Hackers who attempt to obtain unauthorized access to your account will be more difficult to fool if you take this additional step.

Malware and trojan horses are constantly a problem. They can infect your phone, get the authentication key for your WhatsApp account, and then use that key to send unwelcome messages to your friends and family members. WhatsApp is implementing a new feature called Device Verification, which will run additional checks in the background for account authentication. This will help prevent incidents like the one described above. More information about Device Verification and its operation may be found on this page.

Since its inception, WhatsApp has allowed users to check the chat’s security code and confirm that it is encrypted from beginning to finish. However, this procedure is time-consuming because it entails scanning a QR code and comparing the information it contains to that of the recipient or manually confirming that the 60-digit hash key displayed is the same for both parties. Using the Key Transparency feature, the messaging platform that Meta owns is now making this procedure simpler.

You can immediately determine whether or not a WhatsApp discussion is encrypted the next time you tap the encryption option within a WhatsApp conversation. You will still be required to scan a QR code, but the content of the code will not require you to confirm it with the recipient of the message.

These newly added security elements are now being rolled out. As a result, you should see them sooner rather than later.