Somebody knew everything they talked on Imo

Names and places mentioned herein are hypothetical.

Ranga was abroad and often talked to his wife, Maya, who lived for rent in a shared boarding house in Colombo where it was closer to her workplace. However, she used to go home every Friday evening and be back to work straight away on Mondays.

She found more than enough time to talk to Ranga via Imo during the weekends at home. Since the couple was far away from each other, they had lots of private things to talk about and share.

One day when Maya was having a chat with a roommate at the boarding place, she felt that the roommate knew something personal she was sharing with her husband during the weekend. When the chat continued, Maya wondered whether the roommate recorded her conversation with the husband. But how could it happen? Maya was at home by then. She was a bit shocked and thought of getting someone’s advice regarding this confusion. Luckily she found a helpline of Hithawathi from the page she was following on FB.

Hithawathi identified that the issue was with Imo account, which had been hacked without her awareness. They instructed her to delete Imo app, which could be compromised easily when compared to other apps and even run with 10 devices at the same time. (In other words, Imo is neither end-to-end encrypted nor secure.) Further, Hithawathi recommended Maya to install a messaging app like WhatsApp, which is more secure with end-to-end encryption feature so that no one would be able to view what she and Ranga chat. Maya understood its seriousness and that being safe on cyberspace was quite important without risks and vulnerabilities. Therefore, she decided to remove the app and switched to a more secure app as advised by Hithawathi. Finally she thanked Hithawathi for supporting her to recognize the problem and guiding her towards a better decision

Precaution tips:

• To connect with others, do not use insecure messaging apps that can be hacked easily.
• Use messaging apps with end-to-end encryption feature, which provides security in cyberspace.