Tips to protect your WhatsApp from unauthorized access

— Reuters/File

The popular daily-use messaging app WhatsApp offers a feature that can take your WhatsApp account security to the next level.

This two-step verification feature involves an additional PIN code that will be required each time a user logs into the app after entering the 6-digit registration code, WABetaInfo reported.

The feature also gives users of the Meta-owned app the choice to enter their email addresses to help them restore their WhatsApp account in case they forget the PIN. With this, users can reset PIN immediately by requesting a reset link.

However, there are other ways that someone can access your WhatsApp account.

According to news tracker WhatsApp, ‘criminals’, using SIM-swapping techniques, are able to steal a phone number and assign it to a new SIM card if they get their hands on the information private to a user.

Although two-step verification prevents unauthorized access to WhatsApp, this is how users can prevent anyone from resetting their email account password and two-step verification PIN of their WhatsApp account .

  • Never use their phone number when setting up two-step verification of their email address.
  • They must use authenticator apps to generate token authentication codes.

Here are some of the most reliable authenticator apps for this purpose:

Google Authenticator is one of the most popular authentication apps. However, it does not have automatic encrypted recovery backups, and it cannot be locked using a password or biometric authentication.

1Password is not a simple authenticator app, but it offers more features to save your credentials.

authy can be considered the best authenticator app as it includes encrypted backups. However, it is recommended to disable multiple devices to prevent others from logging into the app using a phone number.

Additionally, installing Authy on two devices is ideal if a user disables multiple devices so that they still have the app somewhere else if they lose one.

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