{"id":1753,"date":"2025-09-09T11:45:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2025-09-09T11:45:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:45:47","slug":"ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A former top cybersecurity executive at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/whatsapp\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">WhatsApp<\/a>\u00a0filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that parent company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/meta\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Meta<\/a>\u00a0disregarded internal flaws in the app\u2019s digital defenses and exposed billions of its users. He says the company systematically violated cybersecurity regulations and retaliated against him for reporting the failures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Attaullah Baig, who served as head of security for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/whatsapp\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">WhatsApp<\/a>\u00a0from 2021 to 2025, claims that approximately 1,500 engineers had unrestricted access to user data without proper oversight, potentially violating a US government order that imposed a $5bn penalty on the company in 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He also claimed the company failed to remedy the hacking and takeover of more than 100,000 accounts each day, ignoring his pleas and proposed fixes and choosing instead to prioritize user growth. The lawsuit, filed in US federal court in San Francisco, alleges Facebook-owner\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/meta\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Meta<\/a>\u00a0failed to implement basic cybersecurity measures, including adequate data handling and breach detection capabilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">According to the 115-page complaint, Baig discovered through internal security testing that WhatsApp engineers could \u201cmove or steal user data\u201d including contact information, IP addresses and profile photos \u201cwithout detection or audit trail\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The filing claims Baig repeatedly raised concerns with senior executives, including the WhatsApp head, Will Cathcart, and Meta CEO,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/mark-zuckerberg\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>. Meta acquired Whatsapp for $19bn in 2014. The app now boasts three billion users, according to Meta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">WhatsApp\u2019s vice president of communications Carl Woog wrote in a statement, \u201cSadly this is a familiar playbook in which a former employee is dismissed for poor performance and then goes public with distorted claims that misrepresent the ongoing hard work of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Baig alleges he faced escalating retaliation after his initial reports in 2021, including negative performance reviews, verbal warnings and ultimately termination in February 2025 for apparent \u201cpoor performance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2025\/sep\/08\/meta-user-data-lawsuit-whatsapp\">Read the Full Story<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former top cybersecurity executive at\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that parent company\u00a0Meta\u00a0disregarded internal flaws in the app\u2019s digital defenses and exposed billions of its users. He says the company systematically violated cybersecurity regulations and retaliated against him for reporting the failures. Attaullah Baig, who served as head of security for\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0from 2021 to 2025, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit - Community<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit - Community\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former top cybersecurity executive at\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that parent company\u00a0Meta\u00a0disregarded internal flaws in the app\u2019s digital defenses and exposed billions of its users. He says the company systematically violated cybersecurity regulations and retaliated against him for reporting the failures. Attaullah Baig, who served as head of security for\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0from 2021 to 2025, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Community\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TSFactoryLLC\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-09T11:45:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chelsie Wyatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TSFactoryLLC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TSFactoryLLC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chelsie Wyatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/\",\"name\":\"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit - Community\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-09T11:45:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#\/schema\/person\/9d9908f0e12559297335ebe9b601c82f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/\",\"name\":\"Community\",\"description\":\"TSFactory\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#\/schema\/person\/9d9908f0e12559297335ebe9b601c82f\",\"name\":\"Chelsie Wyatt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09ff3801fb7566acf715fe4e81a9bd942b923c236138a3ed8a8375f099e5d6d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09ff3801fb7566acf715fe4e81a9bd942b923c236138a3ed8a8375f099e5d6d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chelsie Wyatt\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/author\/chelsie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit - Community","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit - Community","og_description":"A former top cybersecurity executive at\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that parent company\u00a0Meta\u00a0disregarded internal flaws in the app\u2019s digital defenses and exposed billions of its users. He says the company systematically violated cybersecurity regulations and retaliated against him for reporting the failures. Attaullah Baig, who served as head of security for\u00a0WhatsApp\u00a0from 2021 to 2025, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/","og_site_name":"Community","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TSFactoryLLC\/","article_published_time":"2025-09-09T11:45:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":853,"url":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chelsie Wyatt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@TSFactoryLLC","twitter_site":"@TSFactoryLLC","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chelsie Wyatt","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/","url":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/","name":"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit - Community","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-09T11:45:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#\/schema\/person\/9d9908f0e12559297335ebe9b601c82f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/whatsapp.jpg","width":1280,"height":853},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/ex-whatsapp-cybersecurity-head-says-meta-endangered-billions-of-users-in-new-suit\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ex-WhatsApp cybersecurity head says Meta endangered billions of users in new suit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/","name":"Community","description":"TSFactory","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#\/schema\/person\/9d9908f0e12559297335ebe9b601c82f","name":"Chelsie Wyatt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09ff3801fb7566acf715fe4e81a9bd942b923c236138a3ed8a8375f099e5d6d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09ff3801fb7566acf715fe4e81a9bd942b923c236138a3ed8a8375f099e5d6d6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chelsie Wyatt"},"url":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/blog\/author\/chelsie\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1755,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsfactory.com\/forums\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}