Meta-owned communication service WhatsApp on Tuesday announced fresh security enhancements meant to improve the safety and privacy of at-risk users.
Called Strict Account Settings, the new lockdown-style feature is meant to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks that could be targeting journalists and public figures.
Set to roll out over the coming weeks, the new feature will allow users to block attachments and media from unknown senders, as well as to silence calls from people they don’t know.
Additional extreme protection settings will also be available when Strict Account Settings is enabled, limiting how the application works, WhatsApp says.
The feature will be accessible from WhatsApp’s Settings menu, by accessing the Advanced options in the Privacy tab.
“We’re always building more layers of security, and for the few people who may be targets of sophisticated and rare cyberattacks — like journalists or public figures — we’re adding a new extreme protection feature,” WhatsApp notes.
WhatsApp has been offering end-to-end encryption for messages since 2014 and half a decade ago announced that backups would be encrypted when stored in the cloud.
The popular messaging service also provides other security and privacy features, allowing users to secure their accounts with two-factor authentication (2FA) and passkeys, to block messages from unknown accounts, protect their IP address in calls, and disable link previews.
“WhatsApp’s new Strict Account Settings feature is a sensible step towards making stronger security easier to adopt. By bundling multiple protections into a single toggle, it mirrors the philosophy behind Apple and Android’s Lockdown Mode and is clearly a response to the rise in targeted mercenary spyware attacks against messaging platforms,” Jamf senior enterprise strategy manager Adam Boynton said.
“With close to three billion users worldwide, WhatsApp’s scale is exactly what makes it such an attractive target for attackers. Features like this help strike the right balance by raising the baseline level of protection without significantly degrading the user experience,” Boynton added.
*Updated with comment from Jamf.
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