Free messaging apps unsafe, claim hackers

[mmadhankumar]

The free text messaging app on your phone can be used to steal your personal information. Sounding this warning, hackers and cyber security professionals have claimed that internet companies can access a mobile user's chat logs and phone data, including location, contacts, mail and much more, through some of these free texting apps.

To prove their point, a team of young hackers demonstrated on Sunday how text messages sent through a Chinese free texting app can be decrypted. They said foreign governments could also be using this method to access data for surveillance or spying.

The vulnerability of free messaging users was one of several privacy issues that hacking enthusiasts discussed at The Hackers Conference in the capital on Sunday.

'Govt fails to tap potential of hackers despite web attacks'

Participants at The Hackers Conference in Delhi on Sunday said the government wasn't utilizing the potential of hackers despite its websites increasingly coming under attack.

Often considered an underground community, hackers are increasingly becoming part of the mainstream IT industry and contributing as security experts. Some also use their skills for larger good, to investigate government documents and data. At the conference, there were people from all of these categories.

"Hacking is like an art which needs skill to master. It is also like science, extremely logical. Today private companies use ethical hackers to make themselves secure. We know of companies that pay hackers more than they spend on developing software," said Kishlay Bharadwaj, 24, a freelance security analyst and organizing member of the conference. Hackers are paid around Rs 1 lakh per month by social networking sites, search engines and software companies, he said, adding that some of these hackers are just teenagers.


Read More: Free messaging apps unsafe, claim hackers - The Economic Times

 

[rudra pratap]

This attack issue is concerned with few messaging apps or all of the available apps. I am asking this because I have seen on watsapp that it is very secure to use.