{"id":138621,"date":"2019-05-14T14:52:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T12:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=138621"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:58:19","slug":"whatsapp-spyware-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/whatsapp-spyware-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp spyware attack: how to protect yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-138623\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/700_whatsapp_bmqw9q.jpg\" alt=\"WhatsApp update\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.en.softonic.com\/android\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Update WhatsApp <strong>right now<\/strong><\/a>. A dangerous malware threat has been discovered that could give hackers access to your data.<\/p>\n<p>In the attack, targets received a WhatsApp call. <strong>Even if you didn&#8217;t answer, the malware could still infect your device.<\/strong> That would give the attackers access to your personal information, including location data and private messages. The threat applies to Android and iOS devices.<\/p>\n<p>So stop what you&#8217;re doing right now and protect yourself by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.en.softonic.com\/android\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>upgrading WhatsApp to the latest version here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This attack appears to be<strong> targeting specific people<\/strong>. The Financial Times reports the U.S. Department of Justice was notified about the hack this week. This is important because we know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/03\/21\/us\/politics\/jared-kushner-whatsapp.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Kushner uses WhatsApp to conduct official White House business.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The attack has all the hallmarks of <strong>a private company reportedly that works with governments<\/strong> to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-facebook-cyber-whatsapp-idUSKCN1SK0SM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a WhatsApp spokesperson said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Be sure to stay with Softonic for the latest news on this story and any other cybersecurity threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hackers found a flaw in WhatsApp&#8217;s security system to steal personal data from users. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9180,"featured_media":138624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2333,1472,1624,1027,1043],"usertag":[839,790],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-138621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwhatsapp","tag-hacking","tag-privacy","tag-security","tag-whatsapp","usertag-vpn","usertag-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326071,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138621\/revisions\/326071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138621"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=138621"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=138621"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=138621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}