Tag Archive for: chats

How to Move WhatsApp Chats to Android, iPhone, Signal, and Telegram

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Since early 2016, WhatsApp has protected messages and conversations sent in its app with end-to-end encryption. This means that nobody other than the sender and receiver of messages can read their content—not even Meta can read or snoop on the contents of your conversations.

Despite WhatsApp being omnipresent—more than 2 billion people use it each month—securely moving your encrypted chats and photos to different platforms or apps has been a challenge. Transferring your WhatsApp chats from Android to iPhone and from iPhone to Android has historically only been possible using third-party apps. These apps are often fiddly and don’t necessarily protect your data at the level offered by WhatsApp’s ecosystem.

But in recent months WhatsApp has made it possible to officially switch between iPhones and Android (and vice versa), rolling out processes to securely move data between operating systems and working with phone manufacturers to enable the move.

If you’re fed up with Meta’s ecosystem, it’s also possible to move your groups and some chat data to other messaging apps. Here’s how to move all of your WhatsApp chats and backups.

Android to iPhone

Moving your WhatsApp account from Android to an iPhone involves a few steps. But it should be possible to bring most of your information with you: Your profile photo, individual and group chats, history, photos, videos, and settings can all make the jump from one device to another. Your call history and display name can’t be moved across, however, WhatsApp says.

Most of the work in moving your WhatsApp data comes before you make the shift. To move between devices, you need to ensure you have the same phone number on each. Before you start the process, make sure you have a recently updated version of WhatsApp on your Android phone. You also need to be running at least Android 5 on the device you’re moving from and iOS 15.5 on the iPhone you’re moving to. (The iPhone needs to be a new device or have been recently reset to its factory settings.)

Next, download and install the “Move to iOS” app from Google’s Play Store—this Apple-owned app will do all the heavy lifting. When you’re ready to migrate your data, plug both…

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Hackers caught dropping malware into Microsoft Teams chats

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Microsoft Teams users have been told to be on alert after hackers were spotted slipping malicious .exe executable files into conversations on the app.

The files in question are capable of self-administration and can write data to the Windows registry, install DLL programs, and create shortcut links, according to Check Point firm Avanan.

Hackers are likely to be using email spoofing to first gain access to Teams, before attaching malicious .exe files labelled “User Centric” to conversations, according to the researchers.

Upon clicking, the file will automatically take control of the user’s computer.

Avanan cyber security researcher and analyst Jeremy Fuchs said hackers “can steal Microsoft 365 credentials from a previous phishing campaign, giving them carte blanche access to Teams and the rest of the Office suite”.

After gaining access to Teams, circumventing any existing security measures is remarkably easy, Fuchs noted. Teams’ default protections are lacking, with limited scans for malicious files and links. Most email security solutions do not provide robust protection for Teams, adding to the problem.

Teams is particularly vulnerable given that end users implicitly, and freely share sensitive information through the service.

“Medical staff generally know the security rules and risk of sharing information via email, but ignore those when it comes to Teams. Further, nearly every user can invite people from other departments and there is often minimal oversight when invitations are sent or received from other companies,” explained Fuchs.

Several steps can be taken to mitigate the attack potential, including installing a sandbox that downloads and inspects all for malicious content, implementing multiple layers of security across all forms of communication, including Teams, and encouraging end users to flag suspicious files.

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WhatsApp to soon let users transfer chats from Android to iOS

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Instant messaging app, WhatsApp will soon let users migrate their chat history from Android to Apple iOS devices. The company first introduced the in October, which allowed iOS users to transfer their chats to Samsung and Google Pixel devices, and is looking to expand to more.

As reported by WABetaInfo, the company is working on a ‘move chats to iOS’ feature, that asks for permission before importing chat history. Unfortunately, going by the shared screenshots, it seems like users will only get one shot at starting the migration process. Skipping the step will not show you the prompt again.

whatsapp chat transfer WhatsApp chat transfer prompt. (Image credit: WABetaInfo)

To do so, one might have to download the ‘Move to iOS’ app, which allows for secure transfer of content such as contacts, message history, photos, and email accounts. Once you choose to migrate data, the app creates a private Wi-Fi network and searches for nearby Android devices. Select the one that is yours, enter a security code, and the transfer process begins. Users will also have to keep their phones and app unlocked during the session.

In a tweet, WABetaInfo had previously noted that iOS to Android transfer is imminent, albeit only for those running on the latest Android 12 version. This was further confirmed by Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp, who announced that the feature is coming to both phone ecosystems soon.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is planning to introduce new editing features that allow users to draw on images before sending them out. Users will soon be able to pick between three pencil sizes and types. A blur feature is also on its way, which would be handy when sending out screenshots with sensitive data.

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Secret Chats Show How Cybergang Became a Ransomware Powerhouse

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MOSCOW — Just weeks before the ransomware gang known as DarkSide attacked the owner of a major American pipeline, disrupting gasoline and jet fuel deliveries up and down the East Coast of the United States, the group was turning the screws on a small, family-owned publisher based in the American Midwest.

Working with a hacker who went by the name of Woris, DarkSide launched a series of attacks meant to shut down the websites of the publisher, which works mainly with clients in primary school education, if it refused to meet a $1.75 million ransom demand. It even threatened to contact the company’s clients to falsely warn them that it had obtained information the gang said could be used by pedophiles to make fake identification cards that would allow them to enter schools.

Woris thought this last ploy was a particularly nice touch.

“I laughed to the depth of my soul about the leaked IDs possibly being used by pedophiles to enter the school,” he said in Russian in a secret chat with DarkSide obtained by The New York Times. “I didn’t think it would scare them that much.”

DarkSide’s attack on the pipeline owner, Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, did not just thrust the gang onto the international stage. It also cast a spotlight on a rapidly expanding criminal industry based primarily in Russia that has morphed from a specialty demanding highly sophisticated hacking skills into a conveyor-belt-like process. Now, even small-time criminal syndicates and hackers with mediocre computer capabilities can pose a potential national security threat.

Where once criminals had to play psychological games to trick people into handing over bank passwords and have the technical know-how to siphon money out of secure personal accounts, now virtually anyone can obtain ransomware off the shelf and load it into a compromised computer system using tricks picked up from YouTube tutorials or with the help of groups like DarkSide.

“Any doofus can be a cybercriminal now,” said Sergei A. Pavlovich, a former hacker who served 10 years in prison in his native Belarus for cybercrimes. “The intellectual barrier to entry has gotten extremely low.”

A glimpse into DarkSide’s secret communications…

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