The Meta-owned messenger has more than 2 billion users worldwide, and in the country alone it has more than 87 million accounts, according to projected data in Statista.
Without a doubt, it is an app that many of us use, but in the last year there have been several reports of account theft that have worried both WhatsApp users and developers, which is why changes have been made to reinforce security.
A great little tweak for WhatsApp
According to press reports, WhatsApp has decided to strengthen the security of its application to prevent account theft in Mexico, and has done so by making a slight adjustment to account validation.
From now on, when a user switches to a new device and migrates their account or performs a reset (delete and re-download), they will need to complete an additional step.
The change is that now the verification code to validate the number will no longer be saved in the account holder’s mailbox, something that happened when the automatic call was not used, instead of an SMS message.
With this setting, WhatsApp would seek to prevent the verification code from being saved in the voicemail, and thereby eliminate a security vulnerability since this service is often attacked by hackers to activate accounts on another device.
Protect your account
In the last year the cases of account theft have multiplied, this became more relevant in the public debate to races that some governors, legislators and personalities warned they had been victims of this.
Although it is not true, because according to the cybersecurity firm VU, 80 percent of the users of this messaging application do not carry out the verification process, so they are vulnerable to an attack by cybercriminals and, with it, be victims of fraud or identity theft.
In this regard, one of the recommendations of the specialists is to implement verification in two steps. There are many applications and digital services that have this option, in the case of WhatsApp you have to go to Settings / select Account / Verification in two steps. Once you get to the option to activate the feature, you will need to enter a six-digit PIN number.
Be careful, if you have already been a victim of account theft, you must notify your contacts so that they are not attacked and report it to [email protected] to follow the recovery steps.