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How to secure your WhatsApp account from social hacking

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Set up a PIN before someone else gets the chance

By Jon Porter / @JonPorty

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Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service is incredibly easy to set up, but this easy setup process means that your account is open to abuse if you’re not careful. Thankfully, it’s fairly simple to enable an extra layer of security on your account, which means that you won’t lose it if your six-digit activation code gets compromised.

These security options unfortunately won’t stop you from a serious hack such as the one that hit Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. What it will do is offer another layer of protection if someone manages to trick you into sharing your security code, which is a process known as “social hacking.”

If you need any convincing about why it’s a good idea to use this extra security, then allow me to share a friend’s recent experience about what can go wrong when you don’t.

Bleary-eyed one Sunday morning, she received a WhatsApp message from a close friend that asked if she could forward over a six-digit code that she was just about to receive via SMS. Without thinking, and because she trusted her friend, she sent over the code and suddenly found herself logged out of her WhatsApp account. 

Never share your six-digit WhatsApp verification code with anyone

You probably realized what happened. That wasn’t just any six-digit code; it was the six-digit code that WhatsApp sends to your mobile number via SMS to associate with your WhatsApp account. In sharing that number, my friend had inadvertently allowed the attacker to log in to her account.  

Since her attacker now had control of her account, they were then able to send messages from it to any contacts she was in the same group chat with. That’s how the attacker was able to ask for my friend’s six-digit verification code via another friend’s number; they’d gained control of that account as well and used it to message every contact they could, trying to rope them into the scam.

In theory, having your WhatsApp account taken over should be a fairly easy situation to resolve: just enter your phone number into the app and have it send you another six-digit code. The problem is that hackers can spam your number with a bunch of incorrect six-digit codes so that you get locked out of your account for up to 12 hours. Then, if you hadn’t set up a PIN of your own, this leaves an attacker free to set up one of their own on your account, locking you out for seven days in total.

That’s why it’s so important to remember these two rules:

  1. Never share your six-digit WhatsApp code with anyone — not your parents, not your best friend, and definitely not your sibling. No one will ever have a legitimate reason to ask for the code that WhatsApp sends you over SMS, so don’t even think about sharing it.
  2. Should the worst happen, then setting up a PIN will act as another barrier to stop someone from being able to sign in to your account, and it will stop this nightmare from happening to you.

How to secure your WhatsApp account

Somewhat confusingly, the PIN is also six digits long. In order to set it up:

  • Open WhatsApp and tap the three dots on the top right of the screen
  • Hit “Settings” > “Account” and then pick “Two-step verification”
  • Hit “Enable,” and then pick your six-digit PIN. The gallery of screenshots below will walk you through the whole process.
  • This next step isn’t mandatory, but adding an email address will allow you to recover your account if you forget your PIN. WhatsApp will periodically ask you for your PIN while you’re using it so that you don’t easily forget it, but we’d still recommend having a backup.

One more thing: it would be remiss of us if we didn’t mention that, in the past, Facebook (WhatsApp’s parent company) has gotten in trouble for using phone numbers provided for two-factor authentication for ad-targeting. The Federal Trade Commission told the company to stop the practice last year. When we asked WhatsApp, it categorically denied that it does this with its backup email addresses, and we think the benefits of providing an email address outweigh the risks.

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.

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How to Lock WhatsApp With Your Phone's Biometric Sensor

  • To lock WhatsApp on your phone, go to the app's settings and enable fingerprint lock or FaceID.
  • You'll need to unlock your phone each time you close WhatsApp or after one to 30 minutes.
  • You can protect your account with disappearing messages, chat archiving, and two-step verification.

WhatsApp is a messaging app that prides itself on security. All texts, chats, and video calls rely on end-to-end encryption so you can have confidence that nothing you do in WhatsApp can be intercepted or monitored.

It's possible to make WhatsApp even more secure, by protecting the app itself with whatever biometric security your phone has, such as fingerprints or Face ID. This way, even if someone gets physical possession of your phone, your WhatsApp messages will remain secure.

How to lock WhatsApp on Android

You can use your Android phone's fingerprint reader to ensure you're the only one who can open the app.

1. Open WhatsApp on your Android device.

2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the screen and then choose Settings.

Start by going to the "Settings" screen on WhatsApp. Dave Johnson/Insider

3. Tap Privacy.

4. At the bottom of the screen, tap Fingerprint Lock.

Tap "Fingerprint Lock." Stefan Ionescu/Insider

5. On the Fingerprint lock screen, turn on Unlock with fingerprint by tapping on the toggle on the right. 

6. Confirm your fingerprint by touching the sensor with one of the fingers you have registered with the phone.

7. Choose how long before WhatsApp requires a fingerprint scan to re-enter the app after you close it. You can choose Immediately, After 1 minute, or After 30 minutes.

When you turn on the fingerprint lock, you can specify how long before a fingerprint is required to unlock the app. Stefan Ionescu/Insider

Quick tip: By default, you will be able to preview the sender and message when you get a notification from WhatsApp on Android. If you don't want this, you can tap the toggle next to Show content in notification in the Fingerprint lock screen to turn it off.

How to lock WhatsApp on iPhone

You can lock WhatsApp on your iPhone with Face ID or Touch ID, depending upon what model iPhone you have. Regardless of which iPhone you have, the process is the same.

1. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.

2. Tap Settings in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Tap "Settings" in the lower right corner of the screen. Stefan Ionescu/Insider

3. Tap Privacy.

4. At the bottom of the screen, tap Screen Lock.

5. On the Screen Lock page, you'll either see Require Face ID or Require Touch ID. Tap the toggle next to that option to turn this security feature on.

6. Choose how long before WhatsApp requires Face ID or Touch ID to re-enter the app after you close it. You can choose Immediately, After 1 minute, After 15 minutes, or After 1 hour.

When you turn on the Face ID or Touch ID lock, you can specify how long the app waits before requiring an unlock. Stefan Ionescu/Insider

Other ways to protect your WhatsApp messages

Besides locking your phone, there are other ways you can protect your WhatsApp account and messages from unwanted access. Here are a few more:

  • Enable disappearing messages: If you want to send someone a message that self-erases after a period of time, you can enable disappearing messages. Afterward, any message will disappear after a day, a week, or three months, depending on the length of time you've chosen.
  • Archive sensitive chats: Instead of deleting messages to hide them from anyone snooping through your WhatsApp, you can archive their respective chats instead. This will remove the chats from the Chats tab, but you can always access and restore them later on from the Archived screen.
  • Enable two-step verification: On top of biometrics, you can add an additional layer of protection to your account when setting up WhatsApp on a new phone by enabling two-step verification. To do that on both Android and iPhone, go to Settings > Account > Two-Step Verification and tap Turn On. You'll then need to enter a passcode and an email address (you can skip this).

Quick tip: Although the email address is optional when enabling two-step verification, you should enter it as a backup in case you forget your passcode.

Dave Johnson

Freelance Writer

Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.

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10 ways to securely protect WhatsApp from hacking and wiretapping

Let's talk.

By default, the security of the WhatsApp messenger is so-so. The same goes for privacy. However, fine-tuning will, if not eliminate, then at least minimize the risks. We will teach you how to make the application more secure and help protect the privacy of your correspondence.

1) Turn on two-factor authentication

Launch the messenger, go to "Settings", then to "Account", click on "Two-step verification", and then - "Enable". Now come up with a PIN code (be sure to remember it). Don't forget to also include your email address in case you need to change your PIN in the future.

Now, when you need to confirm your messenger account, in addition to the SMS code, you will also need to enter a PIN.

2) Disable pop-up messages

Go to "Settings", select "Notifications", turn off "Show notifications" (you can separately disable pop-up messages, both from users and groups).

This will increase privacy - no one will see confidential correspondence on the screen of your locked smartphone.

3) Hide your own activity time

By default, WhatsApp users are shown each other's online activity time. That is, you can find out when you last launched the messenger.

If you do not want anyone to know that you have been online recently, then go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" and replace the item "Been (-a)" to "Own contacts" or "No one".

4) How to hide correspondence with a specific user?

It's easy to hide a conversation without deleting a conversation. To do this, just select the desired chat, then swipe it from right to left, and then click "Archive".

Yes, if someone has access to your smartphone and this someone is more or less an advanced user, he will find the conversation in the archives. However, not everyone knows about it. At least some protection.

5) Blocking users

And this will help you get rid of spammers, numerous scammers and people who are simply unpleasant to you.

It's simple - you need to add an annoying or unwanted contact to the black list. To do this, click on the user's contact, click on the avatar from above, go down to the very bottom, where we find the "Block" option. We block.

By the way, you can see the entire list of blocked users by going to "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Blocked".

6) Disable message backup

In order to disable the backup of your correspondence in iCloud, you need to go to "Settings", then to "Chats", click on "Backup", and then to the item "Automatically". Change it to "Disabled".

The fact is that in the cloud all correspondence is stored unencrypted. If your account is hacked, your chats will also be accessed.

7) Hide information, statuses, photos

Go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy". There we select the desired item: “Profile photo”, “Information” or “Status”, determine who will see your data (either “No one” or “My contacts”) - this way strangers will not be able to track you.

8) Hiding message read notifications

If you do not want your interlocutors to know that you have already read their messages (by default this is indicated by a blue double checkmark), you need to go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" and uncheck the box "Read records".

Unfortunately, after that you will not be able to see similar checkmarks from your contacts.

Yes, it only works in regular chats, not group chats.

9) How to hide information about reading a message without turning off read receipts

Still, there is a possibility to read messages without notifying the sender, while not turning off read receipts (as in the previous paragraph). Airplane mode to the rescue. We turn it on, read the message, close WhatsApp, turn off airplane mode. That's it - the sender will not be notified of the read.

10) Turn off the display of geolocation

You can share your geolocation in WhatsApp - the application allows you to quickly send the desired address. You can choose how long to share your location: 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 8 hours.

What if you need to disable this feature (let's say you accidentally shared your geolocation by mistake)? We go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy", select "Geodata" there, and then "Stop sharing". All!

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How to 100% protect WhatsApp from being hacked

Whatsapp

Messengers Instructions Tips

How to protect WhatsApp from hacking by 100%

Alexander Kuznetsov —

In the last few weeks, attempts to hack into WhatsApp accounts have increased. Even if you have SMS login confirmation set, your account may be taken away.

The signal that they are trying to hack you will be SMS messages showing that someone enters your phone number in their application and wants to receive a code to enter your account. You will see a similar notification in WhatsApp itself - this is a signal that someone wants to access your correspondence and contact list.

Of course, such messages can be ignored, because the code to enter your account comes to your phone, and not to hackers, but not everything is so simple. With a certain desire, an attacker can still intercept this code - for example, if he receives a duplicate SIM card in a communication salon, impersonating you, or uses equipment that exploits cellular network vulnerabilities and redirects messages to his device.

Protecting WhatsApp login using a code that comes via SMS cannot be considered reliable, so if you want to protect your account 100% from hacking, you should protect it with a PIN code. WhatsApp provides such an opportunity - you can add a PIN code through the settings. Now, every time you launch the application, you will have to enter this code, which is not very convenient, but you will be completely protected.

This protection is implemented at the account level, not the device level, that is, the same PIN code will need to be entered when trying to log into an account on another smartphone. Even if an attacker intercepts an SMS message with an account login code, he is unlikely to be able to pick up a PIN code (of course, unless you set something very simple, like 000000 or 123456).

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