Because WhatsApp is frequently the target of hacker assaults, it's critical to keep your account safe.
The WhatsApp messaging service is being utilized for more than just staying in touch with family and friends. Additionally, it is utilized to communicate information with coworkers, supervisors, and even companies, as well as to make payments through the app. Therefore, it's critical to guard against account hacking. It might be uninteresting or have terrible repercussions. We'll demonstrate to you how to prevent it from happening.
Enable 2-Step Verification
Increasing the security of your WhatsApp account is the first step towards preventing hacking. Enabling two-step verification is the simplest method to accomplish this. To confirm that you are the account owner, you will frequently be required to enter the PIN that you have chosen, which strengthens the security of your account.
Go to WhatsApp settings, Account option, and decide “Two-step verification” to turn on the feature. The next step is to input your email address and a 6-digit code. In this manner, WhatsApp will be able to issue you a new 6-digit number if you forget your old one.
Fingerprint lock
You may also use fingerprint unlock to increase the security of your account. In this method, no one will be able to view your WhatsApp conversations, since accessing the messaging software will require scanning your fingerprint. This is how you can protect your WhatsApp from getting hacked.
Its activation is incredibly easy; just navigate to the app's Settings, Account, and Privacy sections. Choose “Fingerprint lock” and “immediately” to auto-lock at the very bottom. In this way, to activate the app and access your discussions, you must scan your fingerprint. Even if the app is closed, it will still be possible to answer WhatsApp phone calls.
You can also secure your account using facial recognition on some smartphones.
Avoid answering unknown numbers
Unfortunately, communications from unknown numbers cannot be blocked. If you have a WhatsApp account, of course, anyone with your phone number may contact you there. And there is certainly a risk there. Additionally, SMS and therefore WhatsApp is used to distribute several phishing attempts. Some hackers won't think twice to play on your vulnerable side to seduce you or fool you into paying them money, providing them with personal information, or clicking on a link by pretending to be a loved one. The goal is to defraud you. At the time this article was being written, a similar fraud was active.
Since it purports to be an SMS authentication message with a 6-digit number, this one is very well-known. Then, a contact will get in touch with you and request that you pass the infamous code that they unintentionally provided to you. You may close your account if you choose to. Your contact's account has been breached, and a bad individual is the one asking you for the PIN, which is yours.
Be cautious if an unknown number contacts you, especially if they claim to be from WhatsApp. To confirm the legitimacy of the number, perform a web search.
Users of WhatsApp have the option to save their chats in the cloud and online. A really useful feature that makes it simple to move your conversations from one smartphone to another when you switch devices or use the app's online version. Unfortunately, there is a significant flaw in this choice: end-to-end encryption is not taken into account.
Therefore, your WhatsApp conversations will be made public if your Google Drive or iCloud account is compromised. The best course of action is to turn off the backup of your cloud conversations to avoid this. Whether you prefer the ease of transferring your discussions or the privacy of your WhatsApp communications is entirely up to you. Keep in mind that you may easily preserve your conversations in the cloud in case you switch smartphones. After that, you can delete and deactivate your backup.
Go to the app settings, Chats option, then chats backup to stop WhatsApp from saving up your conversations to the cloud. Choose "Back up to Google Drive/iCloud” next, and then, for instance, tap “Never” or “Only when I push backup.”
Check security code
The fact that WhatsApp communications are end-to-end encrypted is one of its advantages. This guarantees complete confidentiality of the communications transmitted unless a conversation's security code is revealed or differs for each participant.
On WhatsApp, a 60-digit security code is generated while starting a chat. This demonstrates that the entire chat is encrypted. The communications between participants in a debate are secure if they are using the same codes. If not, your communication is not secure, leaving your messages vulnerable to hacking.
It's acceptable if the code is different if your contact just reinstalled the messaging software or switched handsets, but your chat is no longer entirely safe. Sending him a new message or scanning his QR code will protect your communication and enable end-to-end encryption. For more details, see this page.
By scanning the QR code of the chat you have with a contact, you may also confirm that your security code is the same. To accomplish this, choose Encryption from the conversation's View Contact menu. You can transmit the 60-digit number to your contact by SMS or email to make sure you have the same one if you are not standing next to one another. If not, end-to-end encryption is not being used to protect your discussion for whatever reason. Therefore, it is not advised to discuss sensitive topics during this conversation.
Sharing your conversation's security codes is certainly not a good idea. Although it isn't sufficient to hijack a conversation, it can help hackers.
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