Information security experts in India have welcomed the move that will make the platform safer for its more than a billion users worldwide. "WhatsApp will be much safer than before and normal cases of hacking will go down.
In a surprise move, instant messaging (IM) application WhatsApp announced on Tuesday that it will offer end-to-end encryption on its latest version to tighten its security and privacy norms.
In a release posted on its site, the company owned by Facebook, stated that the new security measures would ensure that only the sender and the recipient of the message would be able to read it, and "nobody in between, not even WhatsApp" will be privy to it
Information security experts in India have welcomed the move that will make the platform safer for its more than a billion users worldwide. "WhatsApp will be much safer than before and normal cases of hacking will go down.
Even if hackers are able to crack the encryption code, they will not be able to decipher anything," said A Kaul, assistant vice president for technology at Indian Infosec Consortium, a body of information security professionals.
But what has surprised Kaul and many other cyber security watchers is the timing of WhatsApp's announcement – so soon after the temporary truce in the Apple-FBI war over iPhone's security and encryption methods. On March 28, the FBI announced that it was dropping the case that it had been fighting against Apple in the US courts to gain access to the iPhone data of one of the accused in a shooting case, because it had got a "third party" to unlock its secrets.
Kaul said, "Clearly for the big brothers – the powerful states – the tightened encryption methods are no matter. It is only to be expected, given that many terrorist organisations now use these IM services." He also pointed to a similar stand-off in India when Blackberry, at the end of a long legal battle, was compelled to hand over the encryption keys to its emails and messages to security agencies.
"Security and privacy have become the desired qualities now, and companies such as Apple and WhatsApp realise that if they are to sell, they must prove, or at least give the impression, that they are secure," said a cyper security expert.
Does this mean that WhatsApp will truly become more secure, and free of hacking?
"What makes a particular site or app vulnerable to hacking is the number of users," said Kaul. "No hacker would bother with something that has few users. So naturally, WhatsApp will continue to attract the attention of hackers," said Kaul.
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