Whatsapp getting hacked more frequently

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Oracle
Got this from a contact of mine

Cyber Crime

Incidents of WhatsApp getting #hacked are becoming frequent.

To secure your #WhatsApp, please follow steps below:

DO NOT SHARE OTP WITH ANYONE ESPECIALLY STRANGER WHO IMPERSONATE AS A KNOW CONTACT

1. Go to your whatsapp

2. Go to Settings (on whatsapp). Click to open.

3. Go to “#Privacy” and click

4. Scroll down to “Advanced” and click

5. Here click on both “Protect IP address in calls” and “Disable link previews”

Once you do this, hackers can’t hack your phones because your IP address is protected!! Once you protect your IP in whatsapp, the chances of your whatsapp getting hacked becomes minimal.

Android phones are more susceptible to such hackers if IP is not protected.
Click to expand...

I've done it.
 
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If IP gets leaked and that causes hacking then the issue doesn't seem to be Whatsapp but actual Android(outdated versions with Zero Day vulnerabilities)
Privacy concern are fine while disabling the IP during call and link previews. Changing these settings can prevent ads and other tracking but shouldn't cause Whatsapp to get hacked.
 
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rajneeshrana said:
If IP gets leaked and that causes hacking then the issue doesn't seem to be Whatsapp but actual Android(outdated versions with Zero Day vulnerabilities)
Privacy concern are fine while disabling the IP during call and link previews. Changing these settings can prevent ads and other tracking but shouldn't cause Whatsapp to get hacked.
Click to expand...

Which is a significant number of mobile phones in India. A cheap 10k phone usually offers 3 years of security updates. So a phone bought in 2021 might would already out of the security update cycle. Nothing is full proof but its better to be safe. Also if a application is leaking IP thats a security issue on the application itself. If your ip is leaked and you are victim of a targeted attack even the latest android version with fully patched latest security might not be enough. These options should be selected by default and not in a hard to find advanced menu in my opinion.

This reminds me of skype having issues with leaking of ip addresses in the past.
 
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Get into a mobile phone just by knowing its IP Address, is not really easy part to hack into same.
Unless you person using phone, breaks/modifies default security settings on Android.
 
The two options are more privacy focused than directly security focused. The IP address exposed would be the public IP which would generally be a NAT IP. This could expose your approximate location and such.
Hacking the phone using this IP is quite tough. It would be more prudent to block unknown account messages, silencing unknown callers and not clicking on any unknown/suspicious links.

More information here:
WhatsApp Link Previews
Silence Unknown Callers
 
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I remember people threatening each other to leak IP over game stuff, during the Skype era. It was possible to sniff out the IP address via Wireshark. Apart from getting your approximate location by looking up the IP, there's nothing major to worry about.
 
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