WhatsApp starts offering password enabled encryption to user backups

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From now on, all WhatsApp backups will be protected by a password enabled encryption method offering an extra layer of security protection to users from spying eyes. The Facebook giant’s subsidiary has notified to all its global iOS and Android users that it will provide a 64 digit key to secure the messages stored on the user cloud accounts, respectively.

In the year 2016, Facebook rolled out the encryption feature to its messaging features and seems to have now induced the feature into its subsidiaries one by one. First, it was Instagram and now the same has been rolled out to WhatsApp users.

Therefore, all those backups stored on iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox will now on be password protected. So, from now on, all the 106 billion messages that will be stored on the cloud and shared between 2 billion users will be encrypted.

Readers of Cybersecurity Insiders should notify a fact over here that the messages stored on the cloud accounts of its users on a respective note will only be accessible to them and WhatsApp will not have access to those messages.

Thus, to enable the End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) filled backups, Facebook users will need to access a new system that will allow them to store the encryption key on a Backup Key Vault available to both iOS and Android OS platform users.

However, the fact is that the Backup Key Vault will be built on a hardware security module that allows WhatsApp users to access the information on when the correct key is punched.

More specific details will be published shortly!

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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