ISLAMABAD: An international cybersecurity firm Wednesday issued detailed guidelines to prevent WhatsApp accounts of general public from being hacked. In this regard, the cybersecurity company issued guidelines on Wednesday.
According to the guidelines, user’s messaging app account might be of interest to cybercriminals also. Stolen WhatsApp accounts are used for various types of criminal activity, ranging from spam distribution to sophisticated scam schemes for financial frauds. Cybercriminals constantly look for WhatsApp accounts and use various methods to gain access to them.
There are two ways cybercriminals can gain control of a WhatsApp account: they can add another device to an existing account using the “Linked devices” feature, or they can re-register the account on their own device as if the user had bought a new phone. In the first case, the user continues to use WhatsApp as usual, but the criminals also have access to all recent conversations.
In the second case, the user loses access to their personal account. When trying to log in, WhatsApp notifies him that the account is already in use on another device, and the attackers can then control the account but not the past conversations.
Hafeez Aziz, technology expert in Pakistan at Kaspersky stated that instant messengers often contain both personal information about our lives and relationships, and details about work including, in some cases, confidential information. If you notice any unusual activity, such as receiving replies to messages that you didn’t send, or if your friends complain about strange messages coming from your account.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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