The civil service once again warned about fake WhatsApp applications

The Center for Combating Computer Incidents (CERT) of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Security of Azerbaijan has once again warned citizens about the danger posed by fake WhatsApp applications, oxu.az reports.

“Fake applications such as Pink Whatsapp, WhatsApp+, which are not presented by the official vendor, are of interest to people because they differ from the original application and offer a number of additional functions, such as saving statuses and messages deleted by the other party, the ability to hide read messages, etc. However, in reality they are created for the purpose of stealing user data, and sometimes for “mining” or “proxying” using the computing power of mobile phones on which these applications are installed.

It is unfortunate to note that the use of fake WhatsApp apps continues to rise despite the Computer Incident Command Center’s April 26, 2021 warning. This is also evident from a study presented by Kaspersky Lab for October 2023. The fact that in the presented study, Azerbaijani citizens rank first in the region with 45.64% in the number of downloads of fake Whatsapp applications indicates a serious need to expand citizen education measures such as cyber hygiene,” the center said in a statement.

This post is also available in: Russian