Computer brands, the internet’s largest mobile advertising network, are on the verge of going dark.
According to security researchers at Symantec, Whatsapp users are increasingly vulnerable to a wide range of attacks that could potentially disrupt the company’s business model.
“We’re starting to see a lot of bad actors in the mobile space that can be exploited to hijack a user’s identity,” Symantech’s Brian Krebs said.
“The Whatsapp breach could be a direct result of bad guys getting their hands on those credentials.”
While security experts have been warning of a WhatsApp botnet for years, they are now starting to worry that the attacks are becoming more sophisticated.
In March, a team of researchers from Trend Micro discovered a botnet that was responsible for taking over the Whatsperium app for Android and infecting other apps.
The botnet was then able to launch a number of attacks on the network, including one that sent malicious advertisements to users.
Whatsapp confirmed that it had found the botnet in a post last week, and the company has since begun patching its app.
As Symantects reported, this is the first time the company had reported an attack against its app in more than three years.
But it’s not the first instance of a bot on the app.
In February, the company discovered a malicious botnet on WhatsApp’s app that was exploiting a bug in its API to redirect users to the wrong destination.
That attack took place just over a week after the company confirmed the existence of the bot in February.
As of February 26, the number of botnets had grown to 5,000, up from 500 at the end of 2016.
But the botnets are only getting more sophisticated, as Symantebar reported last month.
According a security researcher, the WhatsApp botnet has also been able to hijak the messaging platform Telegram, as well as launch a series of attacks targeting the Telegram platform, including a bot that targeted users who used the platform in China.
WhatsApp is one of the largest messaging platforms in the world, with over 1.6 billion monthly active users.
It was founded in 2006, but its growth has slowed significantly since then.
In October 2016, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said that the company was investing heavily in new security measures to ensure the security of its users.
“Today, our mission is to protect users, not only by securing the app, but also by providing them with the best user experience,” Koum wrote on the company blog.
“By enabling these improvements, we can help ensure a safe and secure WhatsApp experience for users everywhere.”
WhatsApp has been actively working to mitigate attacks by the bot networks.
Last month, the social network announced that it was adding a new “sandbox” to its app that makes it harder for malicious actors to hijacks the app’s credentials.
However, the feature has not been completely effective yet, as researchers found that it only prevents the bot network from gaining access to a user if they have not logged into the app yet.
In addition, WhatsApp said it was also introducing a new system to block botnet accounts from hijacking users’ conversations and sending malicious ads.
While Symantext claims that WhatsApp is now a more secure platform than it was a year ago, the attacks aren’t helping to address the bot threat, as a recent study from security firm Kaspersky Lab found that the bot net is still a threat even when the app is turned off.
It also found that while users have been able get away with a bot, a bot is still more likely to use its power to target more legitimate targets.
“Users will continue to be at risk if the app they are using becomes inaccessible to them, as there is little way to stop the bot from continuing its malicious activities,” Kasperski Lab wrote.
