A former top cybersecurity executive at WhatsApp filed a lawsuit on Monday alleging that parent company Meta disregarded internal flaws in the app’s 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 the head of security for WhatsApp from 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.
