New WhatsApp bug deletes group chats forever during crashes

New Delhi : The security researchers have claimed that they have found a new bug in the social networking application WhatsApp where a group chat can be crashed with the help of a special message and all history can be deleted within fractions of seconds.

The users have been asked to immediately update the WhatsApp version only from Android or iOS store as the researchers at global cybersecurity firm Check Point identified the flaw that would allow a bad actor to create a malicious group message to crash Facebook-owned WhatsApp on users’ devices.

According to a report, the bug has been fixed and the current users can avoid it completely just by updating to a latest version.

“Because WhatsApp is one of the world’s leading communication channels for consumers, businesses and government agencies, the ability to stop people using WhatsApp and delete valuable information from group chats is a powerful weapon for bad actors,” said Oded Vanunu, Check Point’s Head of Product Vulnerability Research.

“All WhatsApp users should update to the latest version of the app to protect themselves against this possible attack,” Vanunu added.

WhatsApp operates around 65 billion messages per day by over 1.5 Billion users globally.