WhatsApp users, beware. If your smartphone is lost or stolen, it can be hacked quite easily, by simply using your phone number. A video demonstrating how easy it is to take over a WhatsApp account surfaced on YouTube in April, and shows how WhatsApp’s own verification process can help nefarious persons gain access to a victim’s account.
This method works on all mobile platforms, as long as the hacker has the victim’s phone number. But it is especially bad for iPhones that allow Siri to function from the lock screen. If someone gets a hold of a lost or stolen iPhone, they can figure out the iPhone number by asking Siri. After this, getting into someone’s WhatsApp account is simple.
All someone has to do is set up a WhatsApp account on a different phone with the number of the lost or stolen phone. WhatsApp requires a PIN to verify the account, and a person need only select call verification to have WhatsApp call the phone they’re hacking with the PIN number. After this, they can confirm the WhatsApp account on their own phone and have access to a WhatsApp account.
This works because a WhatsApp call can be answered without unlocking a phone.Redmond Pie notes this is not really a flaw in WhatsApp or Siri, but it is a work around that someone could take advantage of if you’re not careful with your phone. At the least, someone could use this method to spy on the owner of the WhatsApp account.
Of course phones can easily be lost or stolen, but if there’s one thing that iPhone users should do, it’s set their phones so Siri cannot be used on the lock screen.
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