Top News

Today, more than 3 billion users use WhatsApp worldwide, out of which about 500 million are active in India. This popular messaging app has become an easy way to connect people, but now it is also becoming a medium for cyber criminals to spread fraud. By now you must have heard that scammers are deceiving people through WhatsApp calls, fake links or fake messages. But now they are adopting a new and dangerous technique through image files.

Recently, an incident came to light from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, in which a 28-year-old youth downloaded a normal looking photo found on WhatsApp and within a short time, about Rs 2 lakh went missing from his bank account.

Steganography is a technique by which data is hidden in media files (such as photos, videos, audio, etc.). In this, those parts of the data file are hidden which are hidden from our sight but are technically active.

Now hackers are using this same technique to send malware through image forwarding on WhatsApp. This malware is hidden in files of common formats like JPG, PNG, MP3 or MP4, which look completely normal. But the dangerous code hidden in these files gets installed in your phone as soon as you download the file.

Once the malware is activated, it can access sensitive information on your device such as saved passwords, OTPs, banking details. The special thing is that this malware is not like traditional phishing links, due to which it is very difficult to detect them and sometimes even the mobile antivirus software cannot detect them.

In the above case, the young man had downloaded an image received on WhatsApp which had a hidden malware attached to it. This malware operated in the background, obtained necessary information from the phone, and scammers withdrew money from the bank without permission.

Platforms like WhatsApp are increasing their level of security, but it is also important for users to remain alert. Some important precautions are given below. Go to WhatsApp Settings, go to Storage & Data and turn off media auto-download. With this, no file will be saved in the phone without your knowledge.

If a photo or video comes from an unknown number, do not download or open it. If any user looks suspicious, immediately block and report them. Go to group settings and set the “Who can add me to groups” option in My Contacts so that no strangers can add you to any suspicious groups. Never share information like OTP, banking details on WhatsApp, even if the message comes in the name of someone you know.