How to Secure a WhatsApp Account from Being Hacked

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The action of hacking WhatsApp accounts in recent times seems to be getting more intense. Perpetrators can use various tricks to obtain One Time Password (OTP) code information from the user's cellphone.

When the perpetrator manages to seize control of the WhatsApp account, he can trick multiple contact lists to get money. If you have become a victim, there is a possibility that the perpetrator will try again to hijack the victim's WhatsApp account.

Security expert and chairman of the Indonesian cyber research institute Communication and Information System Security Research Center (CISSReC), Pratama Persadha, revealed ways that can be done to secure WhatsApp accounts from pirates.

This step can be taken before the piracy incident, namely activating the two step verification feature in the settings section. "This step is very important to prevent people from taking over our WA (WhatsApp)," Pratama told Okezone.

According to him, users can easily become victims when perpetrators carry out social engineering, such as admitting that they need 6 digits to enter a cellphone number, even though it is a number for WA activation on another cellphone.

If the steps (two step verification) are not carried out, the perpetrator can immediately enter the WhatsApp account. "After entering, the perpetrators usually immediately activate two-step verification and change the email, so that when we want to enter again it fails," he explained.

This requires education, usually the perpetrator poses as a known person with a fake account. Then he asked the victim for a 6 digit number for various reasons.

Pratama advised never to give the 6 digit number of incoming SMS to other people.

If the WhatsApp account has been hacked, will this endanger the user's mobile banking account? According to Pratama, WA which was hijacked did not turn the cellphone into a "zombie" for the perpetrator.

"Because the perpetrators only took control of our WA account, not smartphones. This means that it also does not harm our mobile or internet banking accounts. However, if the marketplace account verification uses WA, it could harm our marketplace account," he said.

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