London: Sparking concern over privacy associated with handling of Facebook-owned mobile messaging service WhatsApp, Guardian newspaper reported that the platform is vulnerable to interception and snooping.
The report claims that the messages on Whatsapp can be read without the user knowing about the same.
This report comes at a time when the company claims that it has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol.
The system relies on unique security keys “that are traded and verified between users to guarantee communications are secure and cannot be intercepted by a middleman,” the report said.
But WhatsApp can force the generation of new encryption keys for offline users “unbeknown to the sender and recipient of the messages,” it said.
Tobias Boelter, a cryptography researcher at the University of California told the Guardian: “If WhatsApp is asked by a government agency to disclose its messaging records, it can effectively grant access due to the change in keys.”
Boelter said he had reported the backdoor vulnerability to Facebook in April 2016 and was told that Facebook was already aware of the issue but that it was not actively being worked on.
The company said in a statement that it provided a “simple, fast, reliable and secure” service.
It said there was a way of notifying users when a contact`s security code had changed.
“We know the most common reasons this happens are because someone has switched phones or reinstalled WhatsApp…. In these situations, we want to make sure people`s messages are delivered, not lost in transit,” it said in a statement.
With AFP Inputs
Source: Zee News