Photo: Flickr / GCIS
Photo: Flickr / GCIS
Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is having a year to forget. Following a number of reprimands and political controversies, the head of communications has scored another dramatic own goal – after her WhatsApp account was hacked on Monday.
Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams has her WhatsApp hacked
The irony is not lost on many, given that Ndabeni-Abrahams is the government’s leading voice on technology. Getting her phone hacked is a cruel twist of fate, but her department has since confirmed that the police are now investigating the matter. However, they have not confirmed the manner in which her phone was exploited:
“The WhatsApp account of Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has been hacked, resulting in private and confidential information being in the hands of a third party.”
“This illegal activity has been reported to relevant authorities and platform owners for action. Obtaining and distributing information that is illegally obtained is a crime and offenders will be reported to legal authorities.”
Department of Communications and Digital Technologies
How do WhatsApp accounts get hacked? Four popular scams
(Information provided by Make Use Of)
- Hacking via GIFs
There’s a vulnerability in WhatsApp that let hackers take control of the app using a GIF image. The hack works by taking advantage of the way that WhatsApp processes images.
If a hacker were to send a malicious GIF to a user, they could compromise the user’s entire chat history. The hackers would be able to see who the user had been messaging and what they had been saying and send messages from the device they had managed to successfully hack into… Perhaps Ndabeni-Abrahams been sharing too many memes?
- The Pegasus hack
Hackers can access a device simply by placing a WhatsApp voice call to their target. This type of attack works by creating a ‘buffer overflow’ – which deliberately puts too much code into a small buffer so that it ‘overflows’ and writes code into a location it shouldn’t be able to access, before installing the spyware known as ‘Pegasus’.
- ‘Text changing apps’ targeted
Apps which allow WhatsApp users to change the text of other chat participants are being exploited by hackers. Essentially, it allows them to plant fake statements that appear to be from other legitimate users. If we use Ndabeni-Abrahams as an example, someone could easily access her personal information if she had downloaded one of these text-changing apps.
- ‘File-jacking’ a possibility
Malware files inside of other applications downloaded to your phone have the ability to monitor your WhatsApp data. When a new file comes in, the malware can swap out the real file for a fake file. This method is used predominantly for scammers, but you can protect against this by altering your settings and following these guidelines here.
Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams WhatsApp account HACKED!!!
— Dpt of Communications & Digital Technologies (@CommsZA) October 5, 2020
The WhatsApp account of Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has been hacked, resulting in private and confidential information being in the hands of a third party.
