Cybersecurity experts warn that the recent Whatsapp vulnerability that allowed cyberattacker to remotely install malicious software on mobile phones, is unlikely to be the only flaw of that kind affecting messaging applications. In fact, Tom Uren of the International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) believes that “pretty much the entire suite of apps that ‘talk’ over the internet could be vulnerable.”
Tom Kellermann of Carbon Black also thinks that “no messaging service is bulletproof,” as a result of which sophisticated threat actors, such as state-backed hackers, can potentially exploit vulnerabilities in virtually any messaging app. One key issue here is the culture of security negligence that characterizes many development environments. As Uren explains, “developers making apps need to dedicate the effort to build secure apps and use secure coding principles,” but at the moment “security is an afterthought.”
Read more: It’s not just WhatsApp, most messaging apps likely have security vulnerabilities
