Tech

How hackers use WhatsApp to spread scams and fake news

Published

5 years ago

August 15, 2018

Edited by Fundisiwe Maseko

Check Point researchers have discovered a vulnerability in WhatsApp that allows a threat actor to intercept and manipulate messages sent by those in a group or private conversation. By doing so, attackers can put themselves in a position of immense power to not only steer potential evidence in their favour, but also create and spread misinformation.

The vulnerability so far allows for three possible attacks:

1. Changing a reply from someone to put words into their mouth that they did not say.
2. Quoting a message in a reply to a group conversation to make it appear as if it came from a person who is not even part of the group.
3. Sending a message to a member of a group that pretends to be a group message but is in fact only sent to this member. However, the member’s response will be sent to the entire group.

Make It Go Viral

As of early 2018, the Facebook-owned messaging application currently has over 1.5 billion users with over one billion groups and 65 billion messages sent every day. According to a report by global digital agencies, mobile users accounted for 172 million, most of whom used only two Facebook-owned platforms: WhatsApp and Messenger.

In addition, WhatsApp also has plans to roll out additional functionalities for businesses to help them do commerce and manage customer support through the app. Vulnerabilities such as the ones described above make the potential opportunities for scamming rife.

WhatsApp with the Fake News?

Due to its very nature of being an easy and quick way to communicate, WhatsApp has already been at the center of a variety of scams. From fake supermarket and airline giveaways to election tampering, threat actors never tire of ways to manipulate unsuspecting users.

In fact, the ability to social engineer on a mass scale was already seen at a level where even people’s lives were at stake. In Brazil, rumors quickly spread on WhatsApp about the dangers of receiving a yellow fever vaccine – the very thing that could have stopped an epidemic of the deadly virus during its 2016 rampage that infected 1500 people and killed almost 500.

More recently, last month vicious rumors, also spread via WhatsApp, led to a spate of lynching and murders of innocent victims in India.

WhatsApp is also taking an increasingly central role in elections, especially in developing countries. Earlier this year, again in India, WhatsApp was used to send messages, some of which were completely false.

Ultimately, social engineering is all about tricking the user and manipulating them to carry out actions they will later regret. With an ability to manipulate replies, invent quotes or send private messages pretending to be group ones, as seen in this research, scammers would have a far greater chance of success and have yet another weapon in their arsenal.

What’s more, the larger the WhatsApp group, where a flurry of messages are often sent, the less likely a member would have the time or inclination to double check every message to verify its authenticity, and could easily be taken in by the information they see. As already seen by spam emails that fake the sender’s name to appear to be from a source the receiver trusts, this latest vulnerability would allow for similar methods to be used though from a totally different attack vector.

How to Protect Yourself from Misinformation

While there are no security products that can yet protect users from these types of deceptions, there are several ideas to keep in mind to avoid being a victim of fake news, conspiracy theories and online scams in general.

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. And likewise, if something sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably is.

Misinformation spreads faster than the truth. Although you may be seeing the same news from multiple sources, this does not make it more factual than were it to come from a single source.

Check your ‘facts’. It is recommended to cross check what you see on social media with a quick online search to see what others may be saying about the same story. Or even better, do not get more of your news from social media websites at all.

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Tech

Nigeria’s identity verification startup, Youverify takes expansion drive into Kenya

Published

8 hours ago

May 29, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

Nigeria’s identity verification regtech startup, Youverify has taken its African expansion drive into Kenya after successfully launching its operations in Ghana, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda.

The move into the Kenyan market with its full-cycle global compliance products, is coming after the startup raised $1 million in seed extension funding in August last year to take the total size of its round to $2.5 million.

Co-founder and CEO of Youverify, Gbenga Odegbami, who spoke at the launch of the platform in Nairobi, said having its products in Kenya was a long-held dream for him and his partners.

“Expanding our products and solutions to Kenya is a strategic move that has always been in the works. Having thoroughly studied the compliance landscape in Kenya, we believe the market is ripe for our superior technology.’’

‘’Expanding our product offerings to Kenya aligns perfectly with our vision to drive financial innovation on a global scale.

“As we bring our cutting-edge technology and expertise to the Kenyan market, we aim to revolutionize the way businesses approach compliance,” he said.

Founded in Nigeria in 2018, Youverify provides API for address and identity verification to several financial institutions in the country, as well as countries where it has its branches.

“Over the years, the company has added more Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB), Know Your Transaction (KYT), Know Your Employee (KYE), Adverse Media Screening and Risk Intelligence Solution solutions to its offering,” Odegbami said.

Tech

‘Anonymous’ cyber attackers target Senegalese govt websites

Published

1 day ago

May 28, 2023

Akanimoh Etim

The Anonymous hacking group has claimed cyberattacks on several Senegalese government websites in the past one week.

The group said it took down dozens of government websites for a second day on Saturday in Senegal amid months of tensions before a presidential election which has seen opposition figures hounded and arrested by the administration of President Macky Sall.

The @MysteriousTeamO account which claims it belongs to the Anonymous group, said on social media that it had targeted websites run by the presidency and those using the domain of the government, including the Defence and Health Ministries.

It also claimed to have hacked the site of the national carrier, Air Senegal, in a sweeping spate of attacks.

The @MysteriousTeamO account said the attack was in “solidarity” with Senegalese citizens and their right to freely choose their president.

Global internet monitor, NetBlocks said the attacks started at around midnight on Friday and had affected dozens of government websites, networks, and online services.

“There do appear to be intermittent restorations in service, however these have not been sustained and the attack is ongoing,” NetBlocks said.

The Senegalese government spokesman, Abdou Karim Fofana, who acknowledged the attacks, described them as a “distributed denial-of-service attack, designed to overwhelm the target with a flood of internet traffic, preventing the system from functioning normally.”