POPULAR MESSAGING APPS - ARE THEY AS SECURE AS YOU THINK?
Mobile security is a fast-growing problem. Standard smartphone operating systems, encrypted apps such as Signal and WhatsApp, and the devices themselves have many vulnerabilities. And it’s primarily the concoction of the three main facets of a mobile phone - the hardware, the software, and the apps that run on the software - which is the cause.
WHATSUP WITH THE POPULAR ENCRYPTED MESSAGING APPS?
WhatsApp’s enormous user base makes it an obvious target for cybercriminals, such as attackers passing-off malicious software as WhatsApp applications that distributes malware or compromises the mobile phone device itself.
Messages sent on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, meaning that only your device, and that of the recipient, can decode them. This feature prevents your messages from being intercepted during transmission. However, this doesn’t secure the messages once they are decrypted on your device.
WhatsApp allows you to back up your messages and media on Android (Google Drive) and iOS (iCloud). There is a local backup on your device and a cloud-based backup, and both contain decrypted messages from your device.
The backup file stored on iCloud or Google Drive however is not necessarily encrypted. As this file contains decrypted versions of all your messages, it is theoretically vulnerable and undermines WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption.
SIGNAL
In a similar vein, Signal is also prone to security and privacy issues. On one hand its open-source nature, end-to-end encryption, and commitment to never collecting user data makes it one of the safest messaging apps around. However, just like with WhatsApp, Signal’s security can be compromised, such as when an attacker physically gets a hold of the actual device or remotely secretly installs malware and trojans onto downloadable security software.