What can I do if WhatsApp has been hacked?

The WhatsApp messaging application is safe. It has end-to-end encryption both when you send and receive messages, as well as when you do the same with photos and audios, or even when video calls However, there are situations that They can put your WhatsApp account at risk: when your mobile phone is stolen or when they have access to your account through WhatsApp Web or discover your mobile password, for example. Well, this is what you should do if it happens and they usurp you or have access to your WhatsApp account in some way.

Lock SIM card

The first thing you have to do is block your SIM card This is done by calling your operator and requesting said blocking due to loss or theft of the mobile. In this way, the operator will render said card and any telephone service offered through it useless: no calls, no SMS messages, no Internet data.

In this way, the WhatsApp application will not be able to connect to the network and confirm the link between account and phone number, so you cannot re-register or reinstall WhatsApp on the device. And it is that WhatsApp sends an SMS with a confirmation code that will not be able to enter through the blocked SIM card.

Now, if WhatsApp is still installed on the mobile and it connects to a WiFi network, it is possible to continue using the application Messenger service. That is, if they have access to the application, they can see your conversations and send messages on your behalf.

Reinstall WhatsApp on another mobile with the same number

If you block your SIM card through your operator, you must request a new one, or a duplicate, to keep the same telephone number and all the contracted services. Well, with this new card and the same number, you can reinstall WhatsApp on another mobile

This forces the messaging application system to automatically log out of the old mobile, where the card was blocked, and send a new confirmation and registration SMS. In this way we would ensure that no one else can see the conversations and messages, and no one can usurp our identity in our WhatsApp.

Request WhatsApp account blocking

In addition to all these steps, WhatsApp allows you to contact them by email and request the blocking of the account.All you have to do is write a message with the following phrase “Stolen/lost phone: Please deactivate my account” Also, you have to add your number in international format, that is, with the prefix "+34" if it is a number from Spain, for example.

Deactivating your WhatsApp account does not permanently delete it. It remains in a dormant state for 30 days pending a new activation request. This means that your contacts continue to see your profile photo, and that received messages are waiting to be delivered during this latency period, but not beyond 30 daysOf course, if you do not activate your WhatsApp account after giving the deactivation order, it will be completely deleted after 30 days.

Close all WhatsApp Web sessions

Less radical and more comfortable is the option to close all open sessions in WhatsApp Web. This is usually a source of information leaks and usurpation in the messaging system. And it is that, if you use WhatsApp Web on another computer and do not log out, it is possible that other people access that account.

To close all these hacking and identity theft options just click on the ellipsis of the WhatsApp application and access WhatsApp Web. On this screen you have access to all open sessions of WhatsApp Web on different computers. You can find out on which computers they have been opened (according to their operating system), and also the date and time of use of this session. With this you should already know if this way has been used to obtain your data or review your conversations.

The close all sessions function is located under the sessions that appear on this screen. By doing so you will ensure that no one else, through WhatsApp Web on other computers, can see your WhatsApp account. Of course, you will have to scan the QR code again on your computer when you go to log in.

The expert version

There are different ways to hack your WhatsApp account, or rather, to access it. Either completely hacking your phone to access different aspects of it, or getting to enter iCloud or Google Drive to capture your copies of messages. Situations that manage to bypass the security barriers of the messaging application. What to do then in these cases? According to computer expert Carlos Aldama, there are several tasks to carry out in these cases.

When we notice that our WhatsApp account is being used or our conversations have been accessed by some means of hacking, the most recommendable thing is the following. The main thing is to change the passwords of the different storage services (iCloud and Google Drive) and activate double authentication when possible. A way to prevent those who have obtained our passwords from accessing our content.

On the other hand, if it is our mobile that has suffered a vulnerability, Aldama proposes doing a hard-reset or a complete formatting of the terminalIt is the only way to ensure that any malware or involuntary connection disappears from the terminal effectively.