FBI issues warning about text messages sent between iPhone and Android phones: What you need to know

According to NBC, the FBI has sent out a severe warning to anyone who texts on an Android or iPhone phone.Analysts are referring to the unprecedented onslaught as Salt Typhoon, which may have revealed private communications and made it possible for foreign hackers to eavesdrop on messages.

According to officials, China has compromised well-known telecom firms like AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies in order to track users of iPhones and Android devices. NBC claims that using encryption—a technology that jumbles messages so they cannot be read or heard without a key to enable access—is the strongest defense against Chinese eavesdropping.

Apps like Signal or WhatsApp are your best bet if you want to keep your calls and texts private. Because these apps employ end-to-end encryption, the only people who can read or hear what you’re saying are you and the other person. Even the owners of the app cannot view your messages, even if they are forced to do so by law or are hacked.

This is how it operates: The codes that unlock the messages are specific to each user. Cryptography experts, or cryptographers, claim that Signal’s encryption is one of the safest on the market.

Making encrypted phone calls online is another feature that both Signal and WhatsApp offer, guaranteeing that your chats remain confidential and secure from hackers.

The good news is that users of Google Messages (shown by green bubbles between Android users) and iMessage (shown by blue bubbles in text chats between iPhone users) are safe because these discussions are automatically encrypted using the Signal protocol.

However, because they are not end-to-end encrypted, SMS transmitted between an Android device and an iPhone are not completely safe. These messages are susceptible because they rely on Rich Communication Services (RCS), which Google decrypts in the United States.

Both Google and Apple provide encryption for phone calls made using their internet-connected apps, FaceTime and Google Fi.

This year, the FBI started looking into the Salt Typhoon. Significant volumes of private data, including text and phone call logs, are thought to have been obtained by Chinese hackers, especially from those in Washington, D.C.

The FBI and CISA, the U.S. cyber security agency, are advising American iPhone and Android users to make phone calls and send encrypted messages whenever feasible, according to Forbes. Additionally, they caution that Chinese hacking of American networks is still going on and perhaps more extensive than previously thought.

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