WhatsApp security breach may have targeted human rights groups

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – WhatsApp said on Tuesday that a security breach on its messaging app had signs of coming from a government using surveillance technology developed by a private company, and it may have targeted human rights groups. WhatsApp said its advice to all users to update came “out of an abundance of caution” and a recommendation by Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto that it notified about the vulnerability before the announcement. WhatsApp told human rights groups it believed the spyware was developed by Israeli cyber surveillance company NSO Group, best known for its mobile hacking tools, said Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit.

Source: www.reuters.com