WhatsApp Encrypts Backed Up Messages to the iCloud

While some law enforcement agencies would like nothing more than for encryption to vanish from the world, especially for messaging apps, WhatsApp has silently added another layer of security to its systems. 

More specifically, WhatsApp has added encryption for messages backed up on the iCloud. This should greatly increase security of its users against hackers and, why not, government spies. 

End-to-end encryption was introduced by WhatsApp last year, preventing intercepted messages from being read, therefore rendering them useless. Until recently, however, chats that were backed up by iPhone users to the iCloud were in readable form, the Telegraph reports. 

It's true that iCloud accounts are already encrypted, but someone with Apple's decryption key would be able to access the entire communication history of any user. So could hackers of any kind. 

"When ...