It has been confirmed that hackers were able to remotely install surveillance software on phones and other devices using a major vulnerability in messaging app WhatsApp
WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, first discovered the flaw in WhatsApp earlier in May. They said the attack targeted a "select number" of users
and was orchestrated by "an advanced cyber-actor"."Journalists, lawyers, activists and human rights
defenders" are most likely to have been targeted, said Ahmed Zidan from the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists.
On
Monday, WhatsApp urged all of its 1.5 billion users to update their apps as an
added precaution.
The
surveillance software involved was developed by Israeli firm NSO
Group, according to a report in the Financial
Times.
WhatsApp promotes itself as a "secure" communications
app because messages are end-to-end
encrypted, meaning they should only be displayed in a legible form
on the sender or recipient's device.However, the surveillance software would
have let an attacker read the messages on the target's device.
Some users of the app have questioned why the app store notes associated with the latest update are not explicit about the fix.
How do I update WhatsApp?
Android
§
Open the Google Play store
§
Tap the menu at the top left of the screen
§
Tap My Apps & Games
§
If WhatsApp has recently been updated, it will appear
in the list of apps with a button that says Open
§
If WhatsApp has not been automatically updated, the
button will say Update. Tap Update to install the new version
§
The latest version of WhatsApp on Android is 2.19.134
iOS
§
Open the App Store
§
At the bottom of the screen, tap Updates
§
If WhatsApp has recently been updated, it will appear
in the list of apps with a button that says Open
§
If WhatsApp has not been automatically updated, the
button will say Update. Tap Update to install the new version
§
The latest version of WhatsApp on iOS is 2.19.51
Kin
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