This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

Is John McAfee's Claim Of Hacking WhatsApp Yet Another Publicity Stunt?

Is John McAfee's Claim Of Hacking WhatsApp Yet Another Publicity Stunt?
DENVER, CO - MAY 11: John McAfee founder of McAfee anti virus/security software was the keynote speaker for the 10th anniversary Rocky Mountain Information Security Conference at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. McAfee a candidate for president spoke first with a panel then keynote address Wednesday, May 11, 2016. (Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via Getty Images )
Cyrus McCrimmon via Getty Images
DENVER, CO - MAY 11: John McAfee founder of McAfee anti virus/security software was the keynote speaker for the 10th anniversary Rocky Mountain Information Security Conference at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. McAfee a candidate for president spoke first with a panel then keynote address Wednesday, May 11, 2016. (Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via Getty Images )

John McAfee is at it again! The founder of antivirus software has made yet another tall claim by saying that he has hacked into WhatsApp encryption, but investigations show that he managed to do so only with the help of pre-installed malware on phones, news reports said.

McAfee, who has in the past garnered media attention by making similar claims, but failed to back them up with proof, had sent a phone to select media personnel with the malware installed to make the hack work and claimed he could read their messages on Whatsapp.

This comes a month after the online messaging platform announced it has added end-to-end encryption to all of its messages. An end-to-end encryption protects the message from being read by anyone other than the sender and the recipient. Such messages cannot be intercepted by anyone.

By doing so McAfee was trying to convince reporters that there is a security flaw in Google 's mobile platform that helped him hack into WhatsApp’s encryption. According to a news report, McAfee tried to expose a serious flaw in the Android architecture while admitting that the phones he sent reporters had malware on them and said his team would release further information after consulting with Google.

In February, McAfee came ahead and claimed he could hack San Bernardino attacker Syed Farook's iPhone to help the investigating agency FBI. Later, when he could not prove anything, he admitted he just made the claim to catch public attention.

Contact HuffPost India

Also See On HuffPost:

Surya Prakash Rai

7 Ordinary Indians Doing Extraordinary Things

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.