The acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook for $19 billion has led to concerns about security and vulnerabilities in the messaging service, particularly regarding SSL encryption. This has prompted some users in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries to switch to the competing Telegram app. Telegram is reportedly gaining thousands of new users as a result of dissatisfaction with WhatsApp's security after the acquisition news.

1. Switching to Telegram, Facebook Phobia.
Mohammad Aljeemaz, BDA Researcher.
In Kuwait at least, the Kuwaitis had long last relationship
could be described as win-win affordable peaceful
communication services with WhatsApp Messenger, it is a
cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to
exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. Available
for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia,
besides those phones can all message each other uses the
same internet data plan that you use for email and web
browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with
your friends.
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will take a victory lap at the world's
largest mobile technology conference in Barcelona on March 3rd, after beating out Google
Inc in a $19 billion acquisition of free messaging service WhatsApp. But he is facing a new
arduous race on the horizon.
The Facebook deal for WhatsApp drew attention for its whopping price tag, but has also
brought out fresh criticism over security for the billions of messages delivered on the
platform. Yet security researchers and others point out that there may be vulnerabilities in
the system used by some 450 million people globally. Paul Jauregui at the security firm
Praetorian said in a blog post Thursday that WhatsApp security and encryption are not
ideal, citing vulnerabilities in the way it handles SSL, the secure socket layer protocol for
communications. The group’s mobile security test “picked up on several SSL-related
security issues affecting the confidentiality of WhatsApp user data that passes in transit to
back-end servers,” Jauregui said. “This is the kind of stuff the NSA (National Security
Agency) would love. It basically allows them — or an attacker — to man-in-the-middle the
connection and then downgrade the encryption so they can break it and sniff the traffic.
It seems at least in Kuwait that not everyone was delighted by Facebook’s $19 billion
acquisition of the popular messaging service WhatsApp, with the news sparking a wave of
defections to the competitor Telegram service.
The Telegram app already seems to be picking up a load of thousands new users in GCC
countries and dumping WhatsApp.