WhatsApp Hacked and Bugs in Intel chips: What You Need to Know
Robert Merkel
Technology,
Scary stuff.
It’s been a day of high-profile security incidents.
First there was news the popular WhatsApp messenger app was hacked. Updated versions of WhatsApp have been released, which you should install if you’re one of the more than one billion people who use the app.
There was also news of several security flaws in the majority of Intel processors, found in many of the world’s desktop, laptop and server computers.
Software patches to prevent exploitation of these hardware flaws have been released by several vendors, including Microsoft. You should install security updates from vendors promptly, including these.
WhatsApp hack revealed
The WhatsApp news was revealed first by the Financial Times, which says the bug was used in an attempt to access content on the phone of a UK-based human rights lawyer.
The lawyer reported unusual activity on his phone to the Citizen Lab, an academic research centre that focuses on digital espionage. The centre then contacted WhatsApp, which had independently noted signs of some kind of hack and put in place preliminary preventative measures in its network infrastructure.
When asked by the Financial Times how many users were attacked using this vulnerability, a WhatsApp spokesperson said “a number in the dozens would not be inaccurate”.
Facebook, the corporate parent of WhatsApp, has issued a technical notice about the vulnerability, saying versions of WhatsApp for iOS, Android, Windows Phone (and the lesser-known Tizen platform used in Samsung smart watches) were affected.
Evading end-to-end encryption
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