John McAfee and his team of four hackers say they managed to hack a WhatsApp message in a minute, but that's not the whole story
John McAfee managed to hack into the Android version of WhatsApp despite the new encryption on the instant messaging app. The tech entrepreneur, alleged criminal and presidential hopeful had some help, he along with a small team of four people completed the hack using their own servers in Colorado, according to CyberSecurity Ventures.
LIFARS, a cyber security intelligence, digital forensics, and incident response firm based in the New York City, conducted tests on the newly found security flaw and noted that it did not require getting root access to the smartphone although there were signs of a “spyware app” and “keyboard recording” vulnerabilities on the Google-developed OS.
McAfee and his team took about a minute to hack the message after it was exchanged at 2:45pm EST in New York,on May 14th.
The security flaw is only on Android-based smartphones, so Apple iPhone users have nothing to worry about.
McAfee says he will speak with Google before he shares his hacking method.
Update
In updated reports, it seems McAfee's claims might have been slightly exaggerated. According to Gizmodo, the phones sent to reporters in order to conduct the test had keyloggers preloaded onto them, which were used to bypass WhatsApp's encryption. According to the publication's subsequent clarification with McAfee himself, he puts blame not on WhatsApp but on Google instead, implying that the company's OS should be better protected, else it negates the security of other apps on its platform. Of course, McAfee has been known to tell tall tales in the past in order to garner media attention, including recently lying about being able to hack the iPhone of the San Bernadino shooter.
In his statement to Gizmodo, McAfee says, "Of course the phones had malware on them. How that malware got there is the story, which we will release after speaking with Google. It involves a serious flaw in the Android architecture." That could just be the desperate attempt to salvage an uncovered untruth, but perhaps we might actually soon hear Google validating his call for a more secure OS. Maybe.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "John McAfee, Arts Culture, Entertainment, Live Event, Music, Performance Space, USA, Waist Up, Getty Images")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}