By Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]
With the statistics of activities of cyber criminals escalating in scale and complexity, WhatsApp has disclosed another plan to roll out three additional security features to protect its users and cushion the impact of cyber attacks.
In a press release sent to Daily Sun, the company said it believes that user’s messages should be as private and secure as an in-person conversation.
“Protecting your personal messages with default end-to-end encryption is the foundation of that security, and we will never stop building new features to give you extra layers of privacy, and more control over your messages.
“Alot of this work happens behind the scenes without you having to do a thing. But, today, we’re excited to tell you about some of the additional security features we will be adding in the coming months,” WhatsApp said.
The new features include Account Protect, Device Verification and Automatic Security Code.
WhatsApp explained what the new features entails below:
Account Protect: If you need to switch your WhatsApp account to a new device – we want to double check that it’s really you. From now on, we may ask you on your old device to verify that you want to take this step as an extra security check. This feature can help alert you to an unauthorized attempt to move your account to another device.
Device Verification: Mobile device malware is one of the biggest threats to people’s privacy and security today because it can take advantage of your phone without your permission and use your WhatsApp to send unwanted messages. To help prevent this, we have added checks to help authenticate your account – with no action needed from you – and better protect you if your device is compromised. This lets you continue using WhatsApp uninterrupted.
Automatic Security Codes: Our most security conscious users have always been able to take advantage of our security code verification feature, which helps ensure you are chatting with the intended recipient. You can check this manually by going to the encryption tab under a contact’s info. To make this process easier and more accessible to everyone, we’re rolling out a security feature based on a process called “Key Transparency” that allows you to automatically verify that you have a secure connection. What it means for you is that when you click on the encryption tab, you’ll be able to verify right away that your personal conversation is secured.
The company pointed out that while there’s many things it can do to make security easy for everyone, there are two features that only you (The user) can turn on: two-step verification and use of end-to-end encrypted backups.