One-to-one and group chats are secured with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on WhatsApp. However, the cloud backups of the chats were not until now. It's finally announced that the messaging platform will also offer E2EE on chat backups for users, which means literally no one can access your chats now without the encryption key.
Before this, the chat backups were stored in unencrypted format on respective cloud servers, and basically, anyone who has access to the backups can read the chats. Users could secure the backups with two-factor authentication (2FA), but it only happens when you try to restore them on your devices. However, it's sure that WhatsApp doesn't have access to the backups.
With an extra security layer added for the backups, users can now opt to enable the feature by manually storing the 64-digit encryption key or setting up a password. The former will need you to manually enter the key to decrypt your backups, while the latter allows you to set your own password to gain access to the encryption key. WhatsApp warns that it's important to remember the password as repeated unsuccessful attempts will lock you out of your backups permanently.
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