WhatsApp tests option that exports Google Drive backups – IT Pro – News

No, it comes after the media and not the plain text in google drive. It was not and was not now. Previously, you had no choice and your chat history (but not media) was stored encrypted in Google Drive or iCloud. WhatsApp had the decryption key on their server. (So ​​WhatsApp didn’t have the backup, but it had the key and Apple/Google had the backup, but not the key. Very secure and very simple for the end user.) You can get this key by registering with your phone number (and if enabled, you must First enter the correct 2FA code.). To restore a backup you really needed: accessed the backup, accessed the phone number, and had to know the 2FA code if it was enabled.

He was actually quite safe, but he left an opportunity open. After all, if you can integrate Google/Apple and WhatsApp (eg: lawsuit or subpoena), you can have both the backup and the key. Of course not only did this happen, but still… it was a loophole in the lineup. To address this, a new “Encrypted End-to-End Backups” functionality has been created.

Now you have 3 basic options:
– No end-to-end encryption, but normal encryption (as usual, the situation is as described above)
End-to-end encryption, with a challenge
– End-to-end encryption, with private key management

If you choose end-to-end encryption, the backup of your chat history and media will be encrypted with a key. You have two options: you can generate a key and save it yourself, or you can create a key that is stored in the Meta HSM vault and encrypted there with a password of your choice. Both have advantages and disadvantages and with one you have more personal responsibility than the other, but either way the choice is yours.

Either way, your Google Drive backup was always encrypted for your chat history; It was with a key that WhatsApp generated and saved for you. Since last year, you can choose to enable extra security and encrypt backups with your key/password, then your chat and media history will be encrypted; But you have to remember a key and/or password if you want to be able to get it back (and forgetting it is bad luck!). Just what you want.

By the way, one must remember on iPhone that if you want to have effective end-to-end encrypted backups: you have to make sure that WhatsApp is not part of your entire iPhone backup to iCloud by excluding it from the backup. (I’ve already suggested that WhatsApp itself block this once E2EE backups are enabled, but that doesn’t seem to be high on the priority list unfortunately. †

[Reactie gewijzigd door WhatsappHack op 9 juni 2022 01:43]