Communications minister's WhatsApp hack – The possible scenarios

[Hanno Labuschagne]

Communications minister's WhatsApp hack – The possible scenarios

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies announced yesterday that Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams’s WhatsApp account had been hacked.

The department said the hack had resulted in private and confidential information being exposed.

While the department inferred that the Minister’s WhatsApp account had been compromised, it is not clear how attackers purportedly gained access to the Minister’s WhatsApp messages.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

With end to end encryption???

 

[WAslayer]

With end to end encryption???

Did you even read the article..?

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

Minister says something on Whatsapp that she definitely shouldn't have.
That info is leaked from the receiver's end...probably by the receiver.

Minister's account was"hacked"....

 

[acidrain]

Gaining access to WhatsApp web is, possibly, a likely scenario depending on how many machines she has loaded. A notification would only be sent if a new device is scanned but any devices (work computer / home computer) that is currently authorized, just requires you to navigate the url and you are in. That is if you don't have 2FA which clearly she probably doesn't.

My opinion is she leaked information she wasn't allowed to, got caught, and now the department is trying to get ahead of it before it blows up.

 

[ShaunSA]

"Hacked" my arse

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Did you even read the article..?

No matter what the earticle says, she/they are lying for sure

 

[JimM]

Publish what you like and cry "hacked" seems to be the case!

 

[Napalm2880]

Far more likely is:
Option 6: The oxgen thief has made an outrageous claim that is difficult to prove as an excuse for some bugger up that was made.

 

[Illegal Allien]

In my experience "hacked" is always a PR ploy for a stupid comment thats come back to bute the owners backside

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

When politicians scream "hack", they should be made to prove how they were "hacked".

He outlined the following alternative scenarios in which an attacker could have gained access to the Minister’s WhatsApp account, ordered from most to least likely:

1. Physically copying some messages from the device, or other backups, for example on a laptop or external hard drive.
2. SIM-swap fraud. This would be noticed.
3. Access to WhatsApp Web, most easily achieved through short-term access to her device. This could also be noticed as WhatsApp notifies you of other sessions.
4. Access to her cloud backups, e.g. social engineering her iCloud password.
5. Malware on her device either through a hack of her iPhone or short-term physical access. This would be a more sophisticated hack requiring private iOS exploits.

Most of these would imply negligence on her part and she should account for it...

 

[Danie_V]

In Cyber Security month too and with all the promoting of 4IR the last thing the public need to hear is about a simple comms platform being accessed.... Not sure why SA has not done what French and German Govs have done to ditch Whatsapp for more secure Element messenger which we could self-host in SA, and have proper verification of accounts for secure messaging.

 

[Gordon_R]

Seems she has a lot of other things to worry about:

BUSINESS MAVERICK: Going postal: Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams lashes out at detractors

At a press briefing, Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams spent more time addressing allegations of her interference in Post Office affairs than key policy matters of her department. Among the policy matters is the issue of new spectrum.

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