How safe is viber

Security | Viber

All around the world, users turn to Viber to have open and authentic conversations with their friends, family and colleagues. With Viber you can rest assured, knowing that your personal chats are always protected and private and that all your conversations are your own. Our mission is to protect that privacy so you never have to think twice about what you can or can’t share when you’re using Viber.

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We don’t read or listen to any of your chats and calls

Unlike some other messaging apps, Viber can’t read your personal chats (one-on-one chats and group chats) or listen in on your one-on-one audio or video calls. We use end-to-end encryption by default, so no need to go out of your way to turn it on. Your private and group communications are completely safe so that only you and the people you’re talking to can read or hear them.

We can’t and don’t sell what you share

When your chats are protected by end-to-end encryption, no one can access them. Perhaps most importantly, Viber doesn’t have access to them—which means nothing you share can be used by Viber or 3rd parties to target you with ads later. Some other messaging apps don’t offer end-to-end encryption by default—hence they can access, read, and sell your private conversations to others for advertising purposes.

More than encryption

Not only are your communications protected by end-to-end encryption by default, but nothing you share is ever stored on Viber’s servers once delivered. Messages you send make their way from your device to the recipient as an encrypted code. If the recipient’s phone is off or they don’t have an internet connection—your message will wait patiently on Viber’s servers for a limited time only—still safe and encrypted—until their device is set to receive and decrypt it.

6 ways to ensure your message, chats, and calls are completely private and also empower you with more privacy when you want it.

End-to-end encryption by default

Messages you send make their way from your device to the recipient’s in the form of an encrypted code that only their device can translate to plain text using an encryption key.

Encryption keys exist only on user devices and nowhere else. So no one—not even Viber—can read your messages.

Disappearing Messages

Set a self-destruct timer for every message in your chat so that after your message is read, it is automatically deleted from the Viber chat— all sides of the conversation.

While its ON, screenshot actions will be notified in the chat. Privacy is privacy 😉

Edit & Delete Messages for All

Sending a message with a typo can be annoying, but don’t stress—just long tap the message and quickly fix it.

If you still want to, delete the sent message on all sides of the conversation, even if it was already seen. You control what you share.

Hidden-Number Chats

When you meet new people in a community or find them by name search on Viber— start a safer chat directly, without the need to exchange or expose yours or their phone numbers.

Hide Chats

Planning a surprise party and don’t want anyone to accidentally see your conversation? Hide chats from your chat list and access them whenever you need to with a PIN.

Under the radar

Control when others can see your online status and the delivery status of the messages they send you.

Learn more about Viber’s security measures on our support site.
Viber’s security protocol was based on the “double ratchet” protocol found in Open Whisper Systems Signal application, with our own proprietary implementation and additions. Our entire security overview is available here.

Is Viber Safe to Use

Contents

1 Is Viber Safe for Privacy?
2 Is Viber Secure?
3 Viber Encryption
4 Viber Safety Tips
5 Conclusions

Every Internet user knows that there are security threats when transferring personal information. However, not everyone takes measures to ensure their own protection.

Here, we talk about data protection in Viber. Viber is a service for instant messaging and voice/video calls, owned by Rakuten, Inc. You can download it for free, and enjoy communicating with all of your friends.

Is Viber safe to use? We’ll find out how this message service provides security for its users. Can a third party get at your messages? Is there a way for you to protect against it?

Is Viber Safe for Privacy?

First, let’s look at Viber’s Privacy settings.

You can:

Share (or hide) your ‘online’ status
Set the ‘seen’ status view
Allow users who aren’t in your contact list, see your profile photo
Use peer-to-peer for calls, allowing your IP address to be revealed to others in the call
Manage your Blocklist
Use settings for Hidden chats
Set rules for personal data collection

Viber collects information about your usage activity, sends you ads based on your interests or location.

In the Personal data section (Settings – Privacy) there are four options that you can manage.

Collect analytics
Allow content personalization
Allow interest-based ads
Allow accurate location-based services

Additionally, you can delete or request the information about your activity from Viber’s servers at any time by clicking on “Delete your data” or “Request your data”.

Learn more about how Viber works.

Is Viber Secure?

TIP

Is Viber encrypted? Yes! Viber uses end-to-end encryption. It protects messages from being read by a third party. The message coming from your device is encrypted before it is sent to your contact. It can be read only after it reaches the receiving device.

For more privacy while chatting, Viber has the following features:

Message deleting
Hidden Chats
Secret Chats

Not every messaging app allows you to remove messages from both yours and a recipient’s device. There are no time limits for this option in Viber. You can delete any message from your chat history.

To hide your conversation from accidental access by others, use the Hidden Chats function. Just set a PIN-Code for its private use. The Hidden Chat is not visible in the common chat list. You are the only one who can open and read it, using your PIN-Code. It won’t be shown to anyone else.

Secret Chat lets you automatically delete the information after it has been seen by the recipient. Set your own parameters in a self-destruct timer.

When you are in a Secret Chat, and you send a message, you can set the message to be automatically deleted by setting the timer. The timer has a set of predefined amounts of time for you to choose, ranging from 1 minute to 5 hours.

In addition, Secret Chat warns you if your contact takes a screenshot of your chat. Secret Chat messages can not be forwarded by your contact.

Read our article “Viber vs WhatsApp – Which Is Better?”

Viber Encryption

Beginning with version 6.0, Viber has had encrypted communication. Once you have installed it, you will see the following alert:

Encryption works for text messages, photos and videos, group chats, and on voice/video calls, on all desktop and mobile devices (tablets and smartphones). If you do not see the alert, check your Viber version and make sure that your contact also has the latest version.

End-to-end encryption means that a secret key is used when transferring information. Messages get to Viber’s server as an encrypted text so they can’t be read by anyone. They will only get decrypted once they reach the recipient’s device.

So, your conversations as chats or calls are protected from being read or intercepted, even on Viber’s servers. The company does not use any information from your correspondence, for targeted ads.

However, some Viber security issues could lead to being intercepted by the man-in-the-middle attacker.

This can happen if someone hacks the account of one of your contacts. To counter this, there are some extra protective measures.

One of these measures is the “Trusted Contact” list. If you communicate with a certain contact frequently, you may wish to add them to this list.

To authenticate a contact:

Go to your chat with the contact
Open the chat info
At the top of the list, click ‘Trust this contact’
Click ‘Free Viber Call’
During the call, a lock icon will appear. Both of you need to click on it.
A code will appear on both of your screens. Confirm with your contact that the code is the same
If it matches, tap ‘Trust this contact’
After that, the lock icon will change to green

From that moment on, this contact will be marked with a green lock. If you see that the lock becomes red, then there may be some sort of threat. In this case, you should repeat the procedure (above).

It might be a good idea to use this option when you send important or sensitive information (for instance, credit card information).

Read how Viber makes money.

Viber Safety Tips

We’ve collected basic Viber tips to protect your conversations:

Watch for updates, and install the most recent version on all of the devices that you run Viber.
Block messages from someone that seems suspicious.
Do NOT open suspicious files and messages.
Add contacts with whom you frequently communicate to your trusted list.
Check your chats for the end-to-end encryption alert.
Use Hidden Chats for conversations you want to keep private.
Send sensitive information via Secret Chats.

Conclusions

Viber protects users’ data from hacking by default. However, you should take extra security measures with self-customization. Negative reviews about Viber’s vulnerability is usually associated with not taking advantage of Viber’s protection features. Full security prevents revealing your messages for fraudulent schemes. Beware of sending confidential information without checking your encryption status. It’s probably a good idea to periodically check your privacy settings in order to feel secure while using Viber.

TIP

The Gravitec.net service is an easy-to-use platform for sending push notifications from websites. Push technology enables you to inform subscribers of updates and new posts. You can also create targeted and triggered campaigns, send notifications automatically, and see campaign statistics.

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Which messenger is safe during war - expert analysis

In peacetime, most of our communication took place online in different messengers. And since the full-scale war began, and even more so, we have not let go of smartphones. But the war is now going on in cyberspace as well – the enemy is trying to get hold of our information.

Facts ICTV asked cybersecurity specialist Konstantin Korsun which messengers are the safest to use now.

Telegram

Now watching

Previously popular mainly among young people, after February 24, Telegram turned into an operational channel for reporting information. Telegram news channels are gaining hundreds of thousands of subscribers; state bodies, people's deputies, and officials have created their own channels for the rapid transmission of official information.

Ever since the launch of the messenger in Ukraine, there have been many suspicions around it. The founder of Telegram is Pavel Durov, who invented the popular VKontakte network in Russia. Skeptics suspected that Telegram was leaking confidential information from Ukrainian users to the Russian FSB. Corresponding fears arose again when Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine.

At first, the Telegram administration said that it could block Russian and Ukrainian channels due to the spread of fakes. After she stated that she would not resort to such a step, but asked users to verify the information.

Durov himself wrote that he has relatives in Ukraine, and what is happening is his personal tragedy. He recalled how his career in Russia ended, saying that in 2013 the Russian FSB demanded the leadership of VKontakte to provide them with the personal data of Ukrainian VK users who protested against the fugitive president. Durov refused to do so and was fired from his own company. He no longer lives in Russia, there is no business or employees there. And, they say, the privacy of all Telegram users is sacred.

Nevertheless, cybersecurity expert Konstantin Korsun does not recommend using Telegram. And not only because of the Russian trace, but also because of the poor data security.

- I am for sure the biggest opponent of Telegram in Ukraine. This is a Russian product, its owner is a Russian. There are reasons to believe that the Russian government and Russian state-owned companies secretly own this messenger. There are a lot of questions about its security, chats are open and not encrypted in any way. I have been trying desperately to convey this for years, but, unfortunately, without success, the expert admits.

Facebook Messenger

Messenger from Facebook is the second most popular among users in Ukraine. But there are differences of opinion regarding its safety. Some experts have concerns about how a large social network can use users' personal data. Especially considering that Facebook has been featured in similar scandals. But cybersecurity specialist Konstantin Korsun calls this messenger not bad.

- Facebook messenger is well protected, the only question is whether Facebook uses your data for its advertising purposes. But these are not Russians. These are Americans, they have laws, rules, - the expert is sure.

WhatsApp

Messenger, also now owned by Facebook. On the official website, the developers claim that WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption, so you can share personal information with your interlocutors without any fear. Messages are stored on users' devices, not on company servers. However, WhatsApp has been repeatedly involved in various privacy scandals. And even user observations.

At the beginning of 2021, the messenger updated its privacy rules, warning that it can share data with the Facebook network to which it belongs. Many users criticized such a policy and switched to other messengers.

Viber

The most popular instant messenger in Ukraine. Without jokes about sending photos of cats and dogs, experts call Viber quite secure - it uses end-to-end encryption by default for all chats. The company is afraid that data is not stored on the Viber server. However, experts do not recommend him for important confidential correspondence.

- There is reason to believe that Viber releases user information to local law enforcement in response to any legal requests and decisions. This messenger has been suspected of this for a long time, although there is no open evidence. But if an ordinary person exchanges some photos of cats with his family, no problem, says Konstantin Korsun.

In a commentary to ICTV Facts, Viber emphasized that it operates in accordance with EU privacy law. Therefore, user information (name and phone number) is provided to the relevant authorities only if it is required by law, in full compliance with the strict restrictions of the GDPR.

Signal

The most secure free messenger, recommended by all cybersecurity experts, is a non-profit project of the American Signal Foundation that develops privacy technologies. It has all the functions, like messengers we are used to, including video calls, Konstantin Korsun explains.

- This is the standard among modern instant messengers. It is free, it has both video calls and group video calls, all the functions of a standard messenger. I made video calls several times, the signal quality is excellent. It is financed by an international fund, does not belong to anyone in particular. All companies compare their messengers with Signal as the best among messengers.

In addition, Konstantin Korsun advises using instant messengers with Swiss jurisdiction, for example Threema . They are well known in professional circles of cybersecurity specialists among IT people, even entire companies use them.

How to use instant messengers safely

The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has developed a short guide for messenger users. It is advised to always observe it, especially in wartime, when the enemy is also hunting for our personal information.

Only share confidential information with people you trust. Make sure the person you're chatting with isn't impersonating someone else. Call or ask for a voice message.
Use 'disappearing' messages or 'view once'.
Activate two-factor authentication to further secure your account.
Set "privacy" to control who can see your photo and add to groups.
View chat history and group memberships. Clear your chat history whenever possible.
Report any contacts that you think are scams, threats, or other dangerous messages.

If you see a mistake in the text, please select a piece of text and press Cntrl + Entr.

which is better for working from home? – DW – 20.04.2020

Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kastl

Technology

Christopher Nehring | Elena Gunkel

April 20, 2020

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many are forced to work remotely. How secure is data exchange in chats and videoconferencing - DW understood.

https://p.dw.com/p/3b4Gf

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In everyday life, we constantly use instant messengers and other applications for mobile communication. However, as soon as it comes to work, all discussions are conducted only by e-mail, telephone or in personal business meetings. It seems from the outside that state institutions are especially scrupulous in this matter, since they, like the government and security agencies, often work with sensitive information and therefore impose special requirements on standards for its protection.

And yet, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, not a single state in the EU was ready for the situation in which many companies find themselves today. However, the need forces to show ingenuity. So the digitalization process thanks to COVID-19 received an additional impetus. So, it's time to take a closer look at various instant messengers for their safety when used for work at home.

WhatsApp as a market leader

European Commission employees have abandoned the WhatsApp messenger due to cyber security concerns Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Trumpf

The fact that the success of WhatsApp has been and remains the benchmark for all other instant messengers is beyond doubt. The European Commission (EC) even introduced the expression "WhatsApp-diplomacy". With the help of this very "WhatsApp-diplomacy", for example, negotiations on Brexit were partially held. True, later, in February 2020, the EC recommended that its employees switch to another messenger - Signal. It is precisely because of doubts about the sufficient degree of security of WhatsApp.

After all, despite vaunted end-to-end encryption that allows only the sender and recipient to see the message, the Israeli security firm NGO Group managed to develop a program that embedded itself in the WhatsApp account of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. A good reason to think for "mere mortals. "

What messenger do the European Commission use?

WhatsApp messenger is one of the most popular mobile apps on the market Photo: picture-alliance/PIXSELL/I. Soban

So what is the difference between the Signal messenger and its competitors? First, it is not, like WhatsApp, a commercial product. Signal was developed by data protection activists and IT security experts. Therefore, the program code of this messenger is available online in the Open-Source format and is constantly being improved by programmers.

In addition, for more than a year Signal has been working on the principle of a "sealed sender", thanks to which the so-called metadata of the message, that is, information about who sent it, when and to whom, are protected. In addition, Signal, according to its own data, does not store the IP address of the sender of the message.

The Threema application works in a similar way: using end-to-end encryption and not exposing metadata. At the same time, when registering, the user does not even need to create a profile with a phone number or email address. Instead, it is assigned an anonymous identification number (ID). At the same time, Threema, unlike the Signal messenger, is not open source software.

Viber, ICQ and user privacy

The example of the Viber communications application shows that security is not always the only criterion necessary to win the hearts of users. Just like WhatsApp, Viber allows you to send messages and make free calls using end-to-end encryption. Moreover, due to user complaints, this principle began to be applied to photo and video files sent via this messenger.

However, Viber has been criticized for a long time due to the lack of data protection associated with the almost free app business model. The fact is that over the years, users have had to agree that their personal data, such as the address book stored in the phone and some others, be transferred to third companies.

According to Edward Snowden, ICQ shares user data with secret services Photo: picture-alliance/Kyodo

The new version of the ICQ application (ICQnew), which is now owned by the Russian company Mail.ru, probably has the same weaknesses. Back in 2013, former CIA officer Edward Snowden referred to ICQ as one of those companies that, according to him, transferred data about their users to intelligence agencies. However, representatives of ICQ and Mail.ru deny this accusation.

Zoom videoconferencing and suspicions of espionage

There are also doubts about the absolute security of the Zoom application, which has become especially popular during the coronavirus pandemic. Demand for the video conferencing app skyrocketed as it promised everything a remote worker needed: easy operation and stable connectivity for multi-participant video conferencing. However, apparently, the enthusiasm was premature.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, videoconferencing has become commonplace for politicians Photo: picture-alliance/ANP/B.

Maat

After all, criticism due to non-compliance with the principles of security and data protection is getting louder. Increasingly, it is becoming known about cases when unregistered participants wedged into video conferences conducted using Zoom. In this regard, the FBI has officially announced the threat of espionage in connection with the use of this application. Earlier it became known that Zoom encryption codes passed through a server in China.

New fashion: own IT developments

At the same time, state institutions, unlike private users, have an excellent alternative to instant messengers available on the market. After all, they can order communication applications from programmers designed specifically for them. And it seems that this is becoming the main trend now.

The same European Commission, which recommended its employees in February 2020 to switch to the Signal messenger, as it turned out, is already working on creating its own messenger.

The German government also announced at the end of March, in response to a reporter's request, that employees of the Chancellor's Office had started using a communication application developed for them by Wire in test mode during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to experts, hackable software just doesn't exist Photo: Imago/photothek/T. Trutschel

Headquartered in Berlin, this company advertises itself precisely because it is physically located in the EU and therefore adheres to the strict data protection regulations that apply there. Paying attention to this criterion is advised, in particular, by the Commissioner of the German government for the protection of personal data, Ulrich Kelber.

However, Wire is not the only developer of communication software in Germany. For example, the IT company Stashchat from Hannover has been developing applications for the police in the federal state of Lower Saxony for several years now. According to some reports, during the coronavirus pandemic, employees of the German Ministry of Defense and the Bundeswehr also began using the messenger of this company in test mode.