British cybersecurity expert and ESET employee Jake Moore (Jake Moore) spoke about the possibility of blocking any WhatsApp account – just contact technical support with a request and provide the phone number of a potential victim. Currently, the service vulnerability may be closed.
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Jake Moore detailed the scheme to ban a third-party account in Twitter – He discovered a vulnerability in the service management mechanism in the reference section of the platform. In case the phone is lost or stolen, technical support offers to send an email to his address with a request to block the WhatsApp account and to indicate in the body of the letter the phone number to which the account is linked. The expert requested that the account on the test phone be blocked, and the messenger’s technical support complied with his request without additional identity verification. In addition, he sent a request from an email address that had nothing to do with him.
On the one hand, this poses a certain threat to conscientious users of the messenger. On the other hand, this is a way to protect yourself in case the phone is stolen by burglars or competitors. It’s also worth noting that WhatsApp tech support only suspends the account and doesn’t completely delete it. Within 30 days it is possible to send messages to the owner. If he restores the account before this deadline, the account will continue to function – otherwise it will be permanently deleted.
Then Jake Moore made another one publicationwho reported that the vulnerability appears to be closed. In response to another request to suspend the account, WhatsApp technical support acknowledged receipt of the request and promised to respond as soon as possible. Either the administration of the messenger was inundated with requests to delete accounts after the disclosure of information about the vulnerability, or they decided to change the account locking mechanism.
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