Of course, your chats on WhatsApp are all end-to-end encrypted, but how about your backup files? Ever asked that question? Well someone did and is here with a solution to further strengthen user security.
Files on WhatsApp that are backed up to either Google Drive or iCloud are not encrypted, so for very security minded users this can be a challenge. Prior to this time, there has been no way to encrypt your data from before backing it up, but all of that is changing.
WhatsApp has enabled end-to-end encrypted backups, to secure your backups while on Google Drive or iCloud from unauthorized access. This update let’s users input a unique password or a 64-bit encryption key to access their backed up data. As good as this is, it comes with a bad side though. If you lose this password or access key, your data will be inaccessible due to the fact that WhatsApp is unable to help recover it.
At the moment, this security feature is only available to selected beta tester on Android and iOS. It will be rolled out to the general public for use sooner than later.
Tech analyst, Collins Eshiet, writes about technology. Follow me on Twitter @KittysTech.