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WhatsApp
End To End Encryption Government Database internet outage Message encryption Proxy Server User Privacy Vulnerabilities and Exploits. WhatsApp

WhatsApp Allows Communication Amid Internet Outages

On January 5, WhatsApp revealed a new feature that enables users to connect via proxy servers so they may continue using the service even when the internet is restricted or disrupted by shutdowns.

Concept of Whatsapp proxy 

When selecting a proxy, users can connect to WhatsApp via servers run by individuals and groups devoted to promoting free speech throughout the world. According to WhatsApp, using a proxy connection preserves the app's privacy and security settings, and end-to-end encryption will continue to secure private conversations. As per the firm, neither the proxy servers, WhatsApp, nor Meta will be able to see the communications that are sent between them.

When it comes to assisting users when WhatsApp is prohibited in a country, the messaging service stated, "If WhatsApp is restricted in your nation, you can utilize a proxy to connect and communicate with loved ones. End-to-end encryption will still be used to protect private communications while using a proxy connection to WhatsApp."

In accordance with the new rules, internet service providers had to remove anything that law enforcement regarded to be illegal and cooperate with police investigations, which included locating the authors of malicious materials.WhatsApp countered this claim by saying that it will continue to secure users' private messages and would not compromise their security for any government.

According to Juras Jurnas of the proxy and online data collecting company Oxylabs, "For persons with government restrictions on internet access, such as was the situation with Iran, utilization of a proxy server can help people keep a connection to WhatsApp as well as the rest of the public, internet free."

After activists in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, while in police detention, the Iranian government restricted access to Instagram and WhatsApp last year. The suspension of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution by the Indian Parliament resulted in a shutdown of the internet in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. This state-imposed lockdown was implemented as a precautionary measure. Only two districts, Ganderbal and Udampur, have 4G availability. After 552 days without internet or with slow internet, the former state was finally connected to 4G on February 6th, 2021.

The business stated it is working to ensure that internet shutdowns never occur and that individuals are not denied human rights or prevented from seeking immediate assistance as these scenarios arise in various locations throughout the world. 

Internet platforms had to comply with police investigations, including locating the authors of malicious information and destroying anything that authorities had determined to be illegal, according to the new legislation.WhatsApp countered that it would maintain the privacy of users' private messages and would not compromise its security for any government.






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WhatsApp
internet outage Message Messaging Apps Outage Power Outage WhatsApp

WhatsApp: Instant Messaging App Services Restored After a 2 Hour Outage

The instant messaging app WhatsApp is restored after a two-hour-long outage on Tuesday. WhatsApp, with around a billion active users, was alerted about the global outage when hundreds of thousands of its online users reported the disruption in their messaging app. 

Reportedly, the instant messaging platform went down at 12:30 PM IST, on Tuesday. The users reported they were unable to send messages or make calls through the app, which was earlier thought of as a mere network connectivity issue. The outage was not limited to the smartphone users of the app, since users of WhatsApp web were also facing the same consequences of the disruption. 

As per a report by Downdetector, an online platform providing real-time stats and information regarding online web services, more than 11,000 online users had reported the outage, while in the United Kingdom the count was 68,000. While in Singapore, about 19,000 users reported disruption in the app since 07:50 GMT. 

Downdetector gathers status updates from various sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform, to keep track of outages. There may have been many users who were impacted by the outage. 

Additionally, WaBetaInfo, an online portal tracking WhatsApp services claimed that the issue is indeed from the server’s side and thus cannot be resolved from the online user’s end. 

Soon after acknowledging the issue, WhatsApp’s parent company Meta said that their engineers are working on the outage issue and will solve it as soon as possible. Following this, Meta Spokesperson even apologized to the users for the inconvenience.  

“We are aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we are working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible,” says Meta Company Spokesperson. While the reason behind the outage is still not revealed by the parent company. 

Considering the popularity of the messaging app which has increasingly emerged as an important communication tool between users, businesses, and governments globally, over 100 billion messages are exchanged daily through WhatsApp as of 2020. This recent outage may have affected a large number of users, including government officials and telecom service providers.
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Shutdown Servers.
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Cyber Attack: North Korea Suffers Internet Outage

North Korea faced an internet shutdown, and experts suspect cyber-attacks are the main reason. The internet outage remained for six hours in the country on Wednesday last week during local morning time. It is the second incident causing internet outages in North Korea in the past two weeks. Cybersecurity expert Junaid Ali from Britain says the recent outage may be due to a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. 

If a user in North Korea tried to connect to an IP address, the internet could not route the data into the country. The servers were back to normal within a few hours after the DDoS attack. Individual servers, however, could not function normally because of the disruption, these servers include-Naenara, the North Korean government official portal, Air Koryo Airlines, and the North Korea Ministry of Affairs. 

News website NK Pro reports network records and log files suggest that websites hosted in North Korean domains that end with ".kp" could not be accessed. A similar incident happened in North Korea earlier on January 24, 2022. In simple terms, network disturbance, not power cut, caused the internet outage. Experts observed that no internet traffic went in and out of North Korea during the attack. 

According to Junaid ", it is common for one server to go offline for some periods, but these incidents have seen all web properties go offline concurrently. It is not common to see their entire internet dropped offline. 

During the incidents, operational degradation would build up first with network timeouts, then individual servers going offline and then their key routers dropping off the internet." Internet access is restricted in North Korea, we don't know how many people have direct access to it, but the data suggests that around 25 million people have access to the internet, which is only 1% of the total population.
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