WhatsApp sees large spike in security flaws in 2019: Report

WhatsApp, which has been touted as a safe medium for sending messages, disclosed 12 security vulnerabilities in 2019, which is a significant jump from the one or two flaws reported in earlier years.

According to a Financial Times report, data from the US National Vulnerability Database showed that seven of the twelve vulnerabilities that were discovered in 2019 were classified as “critical”, while the couple that were disclosed in previous years mid-level vulnerabilities.

The platform is already under scrutiny after reports alleged that a WhatsApp account used by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman hacked into Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ iPhone in 2018 by sending a malicious message through the platform.

However, a forensic analysis commissioned by Bezos wasn’t enough to provide concrete evidence that points to weakness in the iPhone X or Facebook-owned messaging platform.

Experts also told the publication that the new vulnerabilities pointed out may have been existent for some time now. Marc Rogers, VP of cybersecurity at Okta, said, “The fact that they found… serious vulnerabilities in 2019 but didn’t find them before doesn’t mean they just appeared. Many of those were likely sitting in there all that time, and there’s a very high chance they were being [exploited].”

Rogers also claimed that a large number of these vulnerabilities were only likely disclosed because people started paying attention to them out of fear. Additionally, the Facebook-owned messaging service also confirmed that all vulnerabilities reported in the databased were fixed before being disclosed.