Interior Minister , Mohsin Naqvi , informed the , Senate , on Tuesday that about 1, 500 WhatsApp accounts have been hacked across the country since , July 1, adding that the , Federal Investigation Agency , ( FIA ) had recovered some of the accounts while work to recover others was underway.
Even though the Meta-owned program is end-to-end encrypted, which adds an extra layer of security to conversation, hackers was also targeted devices through unprotected connections and entry private conversations.
In details provided to the , Senate , now, the security king said the “FIA’s Cybercrime Wing (CCW) had received 1, 426 complaints related to stolen accounts since , July 1”, adding that the figure did not contain users who had not yet reported their affected accounts.
He said 549 stolen accounts were safely restored from the authorized complaints, while the CCW was now processing a deeper 877 complaints, with 20 cases escalated to official inquiries.
Naqvi claimed that 817 problems were still in the validation process and that 40 of them remained unresolved.
Last month, ex-chief fairness of Pakistan , Mian Saqib Nisar , claimed that a complaint was filed with the CCW for treatment of his “hacked” WhatsApp accounts.
Sources from the FIA had previously stated that the company may follow the standard operating procedure when handling the problem of Nisar’s son.
The company received a lot of issues through its online portal and another forums, according to the sources, but it lacked the necessary staff to handle all of them. Additionally, they claimed that the FIA lacks the current tools necessary to combat crime.
After security experts discovered malware that could get sensitive government records, federal officers were also advised against responding to WhatsApp messages.
By pretending to be federal authorities, some hackers attempted to hack into senior officials ‘ cellular phones.
Additionally, they had attempted to use WhatsApp to send ransomware to seek out details.
A senior government official who had knowledge of the hackers attempts had informed Dawn that some mutual secretaries and more secretaries in various ministries had received emails from hackers pretending to be their bosses and other top officials in different departments.
In 2019, senior government officials in numerous US-allied places, including , Pakistan, were targeted with spying software that used WhatsApp to take over customers ‘ devices, according to people familiar with the messaging agency’s research.
A” significant” portion of the known victims were prominent government and military officials spread across at least 20 nations on five continents, according to sources familiar with WhatsApp’s internal investigation into the breach.
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