{"id":208146,"date":"2026-01-27T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/whatsapps-new-strict-account-settings-adds-lockdown-style-protection-against-spyware-cyberscoop\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:40:12","slug":"whatsapps-new-strict-account-settings-adds-lockdown-style-protection-against-spyware-cyberscoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/whatsapps-new-strict-account-settings-adds-lockdown-style-protection-against-spyware-cyberscoop\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp\u2019s new &#8216;Strict Account Settings&#8217; Adds Lockdown-Style Protection Against Spyware |CyberScoop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/whatsapp-strict-account-settings-lockdown-style-spyware-protection\/\">WhatsApp\u2019s new &#8216;Strict Account Settings&#8217; Adds Lockdown-Style Protection Against Spyware |CyberScoop<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/whatsapp-strict-account-settings-lockdown-style-spyware-protection\/\">https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/whatsapp-strict-account-settings-lockdown-style-spyware-protection\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-01-27 12:18:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"cyberscoop.com\">cyberscoop.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp unveiled a lockdown-style feature on Tuesday similar to those offered by other tech providers aimed at blocking sophisticated cyberattacks, with spyware in mind.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cStrict Account Settings\u201d feature will roll out in the coming weeks and once enabled, will allow users to limit features in certain ways, such as blocking attachments and media from others not in a user\u2019s contact list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will always defend that right to privacy for everyone, starting with default end-to-end encryption,\u201d WhatsApp said in a blog post. \u201cBut we also know that a few of our users \u2014 like journalists or public-facing figures \u2014\u00a0 may need extreme safeguards against rare and highly-sophisticated cyber attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp has been fighting a legal battle against NSO Group stemming from the 2019 installation of the company\u2019s Pegasus spyware on an estimated 1,400 WhatsApp users. Meta, WhatsApp\u2019s parent company, has scored some wins in that court fight.<\/p>\n<p>The WhatsApp feature \u201csounds like an excellent addition\u201d to features like Apple\u2019s Lockdown Mode and Memory Integrity Enforcement, as well as Google\u2019s Advanced Protection, said Natalia Krapiva, senior tech legal counsel at the digital civil rights group Access Now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is encouraging to see more companies enabling advanced security features to protect high risk users from spyware,\u201d Krapiva said. \u201cWhile litigation is an essential tool in combating spyware, due to the high costs and jurisdictional hurdles, it may not be accessible to most victims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIntroducing measures like this that are free and do not require advanced technical knowledge could help stop spyware harms and prevent them from happening in the future for millions of users, especially journalists, activists, and human rights defenders,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Users can enable the feature by going to Settings  Privacy  Advanced.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"author-card__name\">Written by Tim Starks<\/h4>\n<p>\t\t\tTim Starks is&#8230;<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/whatsapp-strict-account-settings-lockdown-style-spyware-protection\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp\u2019s new &#8216;Strict Account Settings&#8217; Adds Lockdown-Style Protection Against Spyware |CyberScoop https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/whatsapp-strict-account-settings-lockdown-style-spyware-protection\/ Publish Date: 2026-01-27&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cyberscoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-1048818328.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208148,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208146\/revisions\/208148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}