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Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, warned Thursday about the possibility of hackers having full access to all the information on WhatsApp users’ phones.
“This was possible through a security issue disclosed by WhatsApp itself last week. All a hacker had to do to control your phone was send you a malicious video or start a video call with you on WhatsApp,” Durov wrote in a Telegram message.
Durov explained that even though people have updated to the latest version of the app, they could still be at risk. “A WhatsApp security issue exactly like this one was discovered in 2018, then another in 2019 and yet another one in 2020,” he highlighted.
WhatsApp problems
He further added that “every year, we learn about some issue in WhatsApp that puts everything on their users’ devices at risk. Which means it’s almost certain that a new security flaw already exists there. Such issues are hardly incidental – they are planted backdoors. If one backdoor is discovered and has to be removed, another one is added.”
“It doesn’t matter if you are the richest person on earth – if you have WhatsApp installed on your phone, all your data from every app on your device is accessible, as Jeff Bezos found out in 2020. That’s why I deleted WhatsApp from my devices years ago. Having it installed creates a door to get into your phone,” he added.
Finally, he maintained that this is not a campaign against WhatsApp and assured that citizens can decide which app to use. “With 700M+ active users and 2M+ daily signups, Telegram doesn’t need additional promotion.”
Williams Perdomo es periodista y escritor, especializado en las fuentes Política y Cultura.