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WhatsApp 2FA: Secure Yourself From This Simple Hack

by Digital SecurityWeb Applications

Imagine someone has taken over your account, what would happen to you and the people who contact you on WhatsApp?

Just as it is easy to fresh install of WhatsApp for your new phone is also how easy an attacker would gain access to your WhatsApp and possibly start a conversation with your friends claiming it is you.

Most times, the direct risk is not to you if you’re attacked, but to your contacts. They can expect to receive requests for data or even emergency funds. This is social engineering at its best. We would trust an end-to-end encrypted platform, a message from a trusted friend and so are coded to have our guards down and rather feel pity in these circumstances.

The repercussions of this happening are beyond imagination. This can even further spread to more of your contacts having there WhatsApp accounts taken over.
With the account taken over, the attackers could then message contacts in the groups you are in as if from the account holder (you), as well as any other contacts whose WhatsApp messages were received after the take over. No legacy data is compromised. The target device remains untouched. WhatsApp has simply been ghosted onto an illegitimate device.

It is surprising how many people have not yet enabled the Two-step verification PIN in WhatsApp—almost everyone we have asked has yet to set it up. If you’re the same, then please take that minute and set it up now. 

The Question now is, How do we prevent this from happening to you for the first time or again?

WhatsApp introduced a feature where you can set a PIN of your own choice and even an email address just in case you forget your PIN. The PIN is your own verification to confirm that it is you even after inputting the SMS verification so you do not otherwise have to share your PIN with anyone.

You can find this feature in your WhatsApp setting > Account > Two-step verification: There you will be prompted to enable your PIN and confirm it, then you will also be asked to type in an email address to use to recover your account in case you forget your PIN

Http and https security certificates vector illustration. Web browser protocols isolated icons

SSL – What You Need to Know

by Digital SecurityDigital SecurityWeb Applications

We often hear about a padlock, green URL bar and several other ways people use to describe SSL. But the question would be, What really is SSL and how useful is to HRDs websites?

What is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)?

SSL is a security protocol that assures users of the connection between their device and the website they are visiting. During a connection to a website so much information is shared between two computers (the visitor and there server for the website) including what may be highly confidential data such as credit card numbers, location data, user identification numbers or even passwords. Visitors have to make sure all the information passing is secure and not prompt to interception by third parties. This is why SSL has become a big deal in the cyber-powered world.

In cases where there is no SSL, the information shared between these two computers often show up as plain text. Which means, if there were to be an adversary, they would basically see all the communication and in this case, data could be stolen. SSL prevents this by encrypting this communication.

Why we need SSL?

When a visitor goes to your website and sees that you have an SSL it builds an enormours level of trust, this shows your visitors that whatever their activity on your website is secure. This trust is of more importance if it includes transactional relationship; where money is involved.

Even if not for transactional relationship, in the cyber-space of today “Data is the new Gold!” so That means everything we do online has to be secure.

To have this level of trust and security for your visitors requires the one key means – SSL. Since they assure users that the connection they have to that website is safe. For the end user, all they need to verify this is a simple icon shown on their browser (The padlock).

The padlock, or green padlock icon has become an assurance indicator to users that the website they are visiting takes their security seriously.

In case you haven’t realized the importance of having your website secured with SSL because you do not handle sensitive financial-related data, it is time to shift away from that. As mentioned earlier, hackers in these digital age would go after any data transmitted on the internet especially other personal identifying information.

Good enough, websites without SSL have been labelled “Insecure” some browsers show a red URL bar in order to protect and allow visitors to clearly identify these websites. Also, websites without SSL do not rank high on search engines as of today.

We shall be writing on how SSL works and Types of SSL to choose out from in the near future.