WhatsApp Web site hijacked, shows pro-Palestinian message

A group called KDMS Team claims credit for taking over the Web site of the popular messaging service, which is used to send billions of messages a day.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer

Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.

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Stephen Shankland

Oct. 8, 2013 2:40 a.m. PT

Some visitors to the WhatsApp Web site on Tuesday, October 8, saw this page instead. screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET

The Web site of WhatsApp, a widely used messaging app, was hijacked Tuesday.

The site showed a pro-Palestinian message at 2:40 a.m. PT Tuesday and was given the title "You Got Pwned." A group called KDMS Team claimed credit for the attack.

"Our Web site was hijacked for a small period of time, during which attackers redirected our Web site to another IP address," the company said in a statement. "We can confirm that no user data was lost or compromised. We are committed to user security and are working with our domain hosting vendor Network Solutions on further investigation of this incident."

According to the Whois database, which can be used to see what numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address is assigned to a given Internet domain, the whatsapp.com IP address record was changed on Tuesday. Such a change, made through the Internet's Domain Name Service (DNS) system, is one way that users who typed in the whatsapp.com name would be redirected to a different Web site.

WhatsApp is used to send billions of messages a day using mobile apps.

Updated at 10:50 p.m. PT with confirmation and comment from WhatsApp.