WhatsApp Desktop brings two-factor authentication

WhatsApp continues to focus on security for its popular messaging service. In the future, the meta company will offer the activation and management of two-factor authentication via PIN not only on the go, but also in the web and desktop apps. For some time now, WhatsApp users have been able to activate so-called “two-step verification” within the messenger’s Google Android and Apple iOS apps, to prevent their account from being reactivated by third parties if they lose their SIM card. . Until now, however, the settings related to the corresponding six-digit PIN were only possible via the company’s smartphone apps. That should change in the future. WhatsApp: Set up two-step verification

Rollout date is unknown for Desktop 2FA

Like the resourceful bloggers of WABetaInfo report, the developers plan to integrate two-factor authentication (2FA) for their chat software’s widely used web and desktop applications. The benefits are limited, however, as settings outside of the smartphone apps only seem useful if you simultaneously lose your smartphone, forget your PIN and lose access to your email. A scenario that (hopefully) email addresses that are also protected by 2FA would only rarely occur. The actual security of two-step verification is debatable.

It is only used when activating a new smartphone or at irregular intervals when unlocking the app. If third parties gain access to a smartphone and the 2FA PIN is not requested when WhatsApp is currently opened, the security mechanism can be deactivated and the PIN and email address can be changed without entering the code. Why the current PIN does not have to be entered is a mystery to us.