New York (CNN Business) The WhatsApp vulnerability revealed earlier this week sounds terrifying.

Hackers could call a person on the WhatsApp messaging app and place malicious code on their phone in order to see their personal information — victims may not even have needed to answer the call for their phone to be infected, an expert told CNN Business.

But the vast majority of people were never at risk of having their private chats revealed by this attack. Regular users of messaging apps should still be concerned, however, and not just for themselves. No system is fully secure, experts say, and compromised high-profile targets could impact more than individuals.

Attacks like this are so sophisticated and expensive experts say, that they're typically only used against individuals in the crosshairs of government intelligence agencies and other well-resourced entities. People like dissidents, political figures and journalists.

"This is the kind of advanced exploit that would be highly selective in nature and would be available to only advanced and highly motivated actors," a WhatsApp spokesperson told CNN Business.

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