The messaging industry and many businesses in India run on WhatsApp. The Meta-owned messaging app for iPhone and Android has basically replaced traditional text messaging for millions across the country.
The popular and widely used messaging forum WhatsApp has introduced the ‘strict account settings’, and in this article let us know how to keep our chats safe from hackers.
The Meta owned company WhatsApp always looks out for the safety of its users. The Company thinks that you should be able to have a private conversation online, just like you would in-person. They are always working towards that goal.
The Company will always defend that right to privacy for everyone, starting with default end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp says, “But we also know that a few of our users like journalists or public-facing figures (who) may need extreme safeguards against rare and highly-sophisticated cyber attacks.”
That is why today the messaging platform has announced a new, lockdown-style feature called the ‘Strict Account Settings’.
If you turn this on, certain account settings will lock to the most restrictive settings, and it will limit how your WhatsApp works in some ways, like blocking attachments and media from people not in your contacts.
How To Enable
You can enable Strict Account Settings – which is rolling out gradually over the coming weeks – by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced.
*For this additionally you will need an update version of WhatsApp.
Strict Account Settings is one of many ways WhatsApp is working to protect you from the most sophisticated of cyber threats. The Company has also rolled out a programming language called Rust behind the scenes to help keep your photos, videos, and messages safe from things like spyware, so you can share and chat with confidence.
What is Rust
WhatsApp has adopted and rolled out a new layer of security for users that is built with Rust. This is a part of its effort to harden defenses against malware threats. WhatsApp’s experience creating and distributing media consistency library in Rust to billions of devices and browsers proves Rust is production ready at a global scale.
To help protect against such potential threads, WhatsApp is increasingly using the Rust programming language, including in the media sharing functionality. Rust is a memory safe language offering numerous security benefits. The Company believes that this is the largest rollout globally of any library written in Rust.
To ensure application security, the Company must first identify and quantify the sources of risk. It is done through internal and external audits. Rust enabled WhatsApp’s security team to develop a secure, high performance, cross-platform library to ensure media shared on the platform is consistent and safe across devices. This is an important step forward in adding additional security behind the scenes for users and part of our ongoing defense-in-depth approach.
Security teams at WhatsApp and Meta are highlighting opportunities for high impact adoption of Rust to interested teams, and anticipates accelerating adoption of Rust over the coming years.
Also Read: Worried about your kid’s safety and privacy on WhatsApp, here is what you can do
