New Delhi, September 25
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) cloned the mobile phones of Rhea Chakraborty and others, giving them access to movie stars’ WhatsApp chats.
The NCB cloned Rhea’s cell phone during an investigation into a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case.
Concerns have now been raised about the security of WhatsApp chats on social media. Some have questioned whether Facebook is making a genuine claim that WhatsApp privacy is guaranteed by end-to-end encryption, citing that investigative agencies are now using WhatsApp chats as evidence.
WhatsApp issued a statement late at night on Thursday to clarify its position on the matter.
In the statement, the WhatsApp spokesperson said: “WhatsApp protects your messages with end-to-end encryption so that only you and the person you are communicating with can read what is being sent, and no one in between can access it. Not even WhatsApp It is important to remember that people sign up for WhatsApp using only a phone number and WhatsApp does not have access to the content of your message.
“WhatsApp follows the guidance provided by the manufacturers of operating systems for storage on the device and we encourage people to take advantage of all the security features that operating systems provide, such as strong passwords or biometric identifications to prevent third parties from accessing stored content on the device “. The NCB investigation into the drug case linked to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case has caught up with several Bollywood A members after their WhatsApp conversations about banned drugs emerged.
Some WhatsApp chats have appeared in the media, allegedly between Rhea and others, and the investigative agency is now focusing on a 2017 group chat, allegedly between Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone and his manager Karishma Prakash.
The WhatsApp chats appear to have been recovered from Jaya Saha, who was questioned by the NCB. Jaya was also a talent manager for Sushant Singh Rajput. Jaya, who is part of the Kwan Talent Management Agency, was also in this WhatsApp group with Deepika and Karishma.
So how are WhatsApp chats, which were considered private, turning out now?
WhatsApp says in its security settings that there is end-to-end encryption for all your messages, but the media and message backup on Google Drive or any cloud service is not protected by end-to-end encryption from WhatsApp.
End-to-end encryption means that messages are visible only to the sender and recipient, and not even to WhatsApp.
To access encrypted WhatsApp data, security and investigative agencies can take a user’s phone and create a “clone” on another device. This gives them access even to deleted messages with a “mirror image” of a phone, after which all data can be transferred to a separate device.
From then on, it’s just about data recovery, which agencies do by involving forensic experts. It recovers all kinds of data, such as phone call logs, messages, images, WhatsApp chats, as well as data from the phone’s cloud service, such as Google Drive or iCloud, including anything that has been deleted.
The NCB has said that Jaya was questioned about her conversations with other celebrities. The NCB is now investigating whether Jaya acquired narcotics and banned the drugs for these celebrities.
Jaya’s name came up after the Law Enforcement Directorate had access to a conversation about drugs between her and Rhea, who is in jail in connection with the drug case, in the PMLA case mentioned above.
The defense can say that they did not use the phone during the chat. Or as Rhea put it, it was Sushant who asked her to send those messages from her phone.
Analysis of Rhea’s WhatsApp chats with other entities reflected the angle of the conspiracy, the NCB said.
Actors Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan and Shraddha Kapoor will appear before the NCB at their Mumbai office on Saturday in connection with the drug case. Actor Rakul Preet Singh has also been summoned to appear before the NCB on Friday.
IANS
