In November 2014, WhatsApp was able to encrypt messages (albeit poorly) and was audited by an independent organization less than a year ago. This caused the app to score two stars. On April 5, WhatsApp raised its note by obtaining 4 additional stars in a single day.
The first star that received this application, was because, even now, WhatsApp employees cannot decrypt and read the messages of users. I remind you that the dispute between Apple and the FBI exploded for the same reason: because the company declared that they could not hack their own smartphones even at the request of the security services.
WhatsApp received another star by its own identity verification mechanism: when a conversation starts, users can make sure they are talking to the person they want to connect to and verify the integrity of the channel.
The courier service was awarded its fifth star as it constantly changes the encryption keys. Then, if someone steals the key, the criminal would be able to decipher only part of the conversation, keeping previous conversations safe.
And, finally, the sixth star was awarded for the good implementation of the signal protocol in WhatsApp. This measure allows the audience, including professional cryptographers, to verify the encryption design and ensure that the encryption keys are generated, stored and sent securely.
The seventh and last star that was not granted to WhatsApp, was due to the fact that its messaging service does not have its source code open. When developers open their codes, Internet users can unite their efforts to find new vulnerabilities and make the solution more secure. Facebook, the owner of WhatsApp, seems to want to work on this on his own.
The latest version of WhatsApp encrypts all data: messages, images, videos and calls for all people involved in the chat or call. Encryption works on all platforms, from Nokia S40 and Symbian to iOS, Android, Blackberry 10 and Windows Phone.
The creators of WhatsApp, Jan Koum and Brian Acton are sure that many people will appreciate this change. Now, more than one billion people can speak and share their thoughts on any subject in a safe and private way. This is a big step in terms of privacy on the Internet, a trend totally opposite to what we have recently observed in the world.
But now however a Teacher from IIT Madras claims,
WhatsApp says it is not technically possible to show the originator of the message, I can show that it is possible: IIT professor When a message is sent from WhatsApp, the identity of the originator can also be revealed along with the message.
Whatsapp has not yet replied to this issue, but it is expected to be fixed in the future app update.
