WHATSAPP is warning people to upgrade their account security to keep out fraudsters and other snoopers.

I received an alert from WhatsApp urging me to switch on a passkey.

1

Passkeys are an alternative to passwords that's much safer and faster.

These rely on your face, fingerprint or a simple passcode to login.

As such, passkeys can't be guessed and they're impossible to re-use too.

And passwords can be leaked online - whereas a passkey can't.

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People mistakenly re-use passwords as well, because they're easy to forget.

Re-used passwords make it all too easy for hackers to break into multiple of your accounts, and simple log-ins are easy to guess.

Passkeys have none of these problems, making them much more secure.

A number of tech companies such as Google are pushing people to switch from passwords to passkeys.

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If your phone ends up in the wrong hands they could use it to raid your messages - and even text family to scam them out of money by pretending to be you.

"We send you a registration code to confirm that you own the phone number you want to use on WhatsApp," Meta explains.

"After registering your phone number with WhatsApp, you can choose to set up a passkey for future verification."

"You can use your fingerprint, face, or screen lock to verify it’s you with a passkey. When you register, you can use the passkey instead of an SMS."

How to setup passkeys on WhatsApp

To start setting up a passkey on your WhatsApp account, do the following:

1. Go to your WhatsApp Settings
2. Tap Account
3. Tap Passkeys
4. Tap Create passkey (skip this step if you're on Android)
5. Tap Continue

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