Overview
- WhatsApp, which disclosed the issue Wednesday, logged affected accounts out and told about 200 people—mostly in Italy—to delete the counterfeit client and reinstall the official app.
- The company attributes the fake WhatsApp to Italian spyware maker SIO through its subsidiary Asigint and says it will send a formal legal demand to halt the activity.
- Reports from ANSA and La Repubblica say the bogus app was distributed outside Apple’s App Store and Google Play through social engineering that convinced a small set of users to sideload it.
- WhatsApp says its official apps were not breached and end-to-end encryption remains intact for people who use the legitimate client from the official stores.
- The case fits a broader pattern in Italy, where prior probes tied SIO to the 'Spyrtacus' spyware on Android and where WhatsApp last year alerted about 90 users targeted with Paragon’s tools.