I love holidays. Taking a day away from these hectic workloads make me feel refreshed. During my week offs, I prefer spending time with my family rather than friends. I am a kind of introvert person, so I don’t have a lot much friends. My circle is small but I am happy with what I have.
Talking about myself, I am a business man. The thought of “I will be my own boss”, provoked me to establish a new start-up company which is now in a good position by the effort of every person in my organization.
For the last few days, the work load was hectic and I was already half way down mentally. I couldn’t think of any other better time to take a holiday than this. I have my personal secretary and the employees to take care of the firm for a few days. To be honest, Clara, my personal secretary is a very intelligent women and her decision making skill has always surprised me. “She’ll be perfect to handle all the issues” I told to myself. But still, if there needed any kind of assistance from me, I asked her to contact me through Whatsapp.
My family and I left for the holidays. We chose Maldives this time. What a stunning place to spend a holiday. The first three days went so peaceful and happy. On the fourth day, my wife received a text message from Clara, quoting that she was not able to contact me through Whatsapp and had doubts that someone else is using my account. There were unwanted messages sent to my co-workers without my knowledge. I was really shocked to hear this.
I started checking my Whatsapp when this pop up was displayed, “This phone could not be verified”. When I had a n investigation about this to the technical people, they came to the conclusion that my Whatsapp account was hacked!
A general picture
Whatsapp is a multi-platform messaging application that allows users to send text messages, make voice and video calls all with a strong and stable network connection.
Whatsapp is very popular application with around 2 billion active users. Whatsapp connected friends and family in different countries and always made them keep in touch with one another.
The main attractive features of Whatsapp include cross-platform functionality, easy accessibility and straight forward features.
The core attributes of Whatsapp are:
- Voice and video calls
- Voice messages
- Secure messaging
- Photos and video sharing
- Document sharing
- Desktop access
- Whatsapp business
How can someone hack your Whatsapp account?
- By syncing the web version with the device using the QR code
One of the main vulnerability of Whatsapp is its web feature. To gain the access of the target’s account, the simple way is to configure the whatsapp analog in the web browser and use the captured data for your own benefit.
One of the drawbacks of this method is that, physical access of the target’s smartphone is required but only for a moment.
- Spying the messages and exporting the chat history to your email
This method is much familiar to the first one. It is helpful when you have less than a minute to access the target’s device. The method only allows the hacker to read the chat which is not removed by the target. Online monitoring cannot be done using this method.
- Hacking with use of POCWAPP
PullOutCorrWhatsapp (POCWAPP) is a program which is used to hack whatsapp remotely and the hacker can have multiple accounts at once. Till date this program only runs in the Android version.
The program is available in Dark Web and the cost is unaware since the data is privately secured.
- Tracking using Bluetooth
Bluetooth helps to access the target’s account, if it’s between the range of 5-50 metres from your device. Here data is transferred in an unattainable frequency. The application that uses Bluetooth to hijack data from whatsapp is known as “BlueMesCrack 2.0”. The price range of this software is between 300-400 dollars.
How to prevent Whatsapp hacks?
- Logout from all the systems that are connected to whatsapp web. This will prevent the hackers from reading your personal information.
- Do not leave your phone anywhere carelessly.
- Lock apps that contain personal information.
- Never connect your devices to unknown Wi-Fi networks as this may be a trap to seek access to your device. Hackers may use unique MAC address to check your whatsapp chat.
- If you feel like your account is compromised, deactivate your account by sending an email to support@whatsapp.com. Your account will be deleted automatically if not used for 30 days.
- Always use two-step verification process. This adds extra security to your account.
- Lock whatsapp using any app lock feature or using PIN number.