WhatsApp. Unfortunately, a very serious new problem has been discovered for messaging application owned by Facebook, it being revealed by an Amazon AWS engineer this very day. We are talking about a very serious problem for the WhatsApp application that affects all users, it allows hackers to have access to our entire conversation history by simply accessing the phone number used by us.
logged into whatsapp with a new phone number today and the message history from the previous number's owner was right there?! this doesn't seem right.
— Abby Fuller (@abbyfuller) January 11, 2019
WhatsApp. The problem was discovered by the Amazon engineer after logging into the application on a new phone, using a new SIM card, with a new phone number, having access to all the conversation history associated with that number. It seems that the person who used that phone number in the past gave it up, but in the WhatsApp servers the conversation history remained associated with that phone number, and when he logged into a new phone, everything was displayed to the new owner .
WhatsApp. ATTENTION, SERIOUS PROBLEM AFFECTING YOU
WhatsApp. This means that anyone who clones a card with a phone number will have access to all the conversation history of the cloned number, if the victim has not implemented any protection measures, such as 2-step authentication. If this has not happened, anyone who has access to a SIM with that phone number, cloned or not, can see that person's WhatsApp chat history, regardless of what mobile phone model they log in on .
Yes it was a new device. No it wasn't second hand. It was not a second hand SIM. Yes I'm sure they weren't my messages, or groups that I was added to. Yes they were in plaintext. I'm sure it's my phone number. It was not restored from a backup.
— Abby Fuller (@abbyfuller) January 11, 2019
WhatsApp. The problem affects everyone who does not have 2-step authentication activated, and those at Facebook either do not know or are not interested in solving it, because it is unlikely that it is even that new. Those from WhatsApp say that the data associated with a phone number is deleted in 45 days from the moment the user becomes inactive on the platform, but it is possible that in some cases this is not the case, and in others what happened for Amazon engineer.
WhatsApp. To be sure that problems of this kind cannot occur, make sure that you have activated the 2-step authentication for the account in the application, which also involves the use of a PIN to access the applications.