Headline Roundup • December 5th, 2024
FBI Warns Android and iPhone Users to Stop Sending Texts Amid Chinese Hack
Summary from the AllSides News Team
While messaging between two Android phones or Apple phones is secure, text messaging from Android to Apple or Apple to Android phones is not secure, according to the FBI.
What to Do: The encryption methods on Apple and Android devices don't apply to each other's systems. To keep texts between the devices secure, officials recommend using end-to-end encryption. Signal, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, are messaging platforms that offer full encryption.
The Details: The FBI began investigating a cybersecurity breach of global telecommunications in the spring. The intrusion was linked to Salt Typhoon, a Chinese Ministry of Public Security-affiliated hacking group. In October, the hack was made public. On Tuesday, officials warned that the breach was larger than previously thought and is ongoing. The Senate Commerce subcommittee is set to meet regarding Salt Typhoon on December 11.
Key Quotes: Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) said it is the “most serious breach in our history.” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s cyber subcommittee added, “Unless you are using a specialized app, any one of us and every one of us today is subject to the review by the Chinese Communist government of any cell phone conversation you have with anyone in America.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
The FBI has issued a warning to Americans about sending regular text messages between Androids and iPhones.
The agency revealed that exchanges between the two brands leave messages vulnerable to hackers.
Instead, users are advised to use secure, encrypted messaging and phone calls on apps like WhatsApp to prevent third parties from accessing conversations.
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Kiichiro Sato/AP
The federal government began investigating a major Chinese breach of global telecommunications systems in the spring, officials said Tuesday, and warned that the intrusion is “ongoing” and likely larger in scale than previously understood.
The hack was first announced publicly in October and has been attributed by U.S. agencies to a Chinese government-linked hacking group known as Salt Typhoon. The effort targeted dozens of telecom companies in the U.S. and globally to gain access to U.S. political leaders and national security data.
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NurPhoto via Getty Images
Timing is everything. Just as Apple’s adoption of RCS had seemed to signal a return to text messaging versus the unstoppable growth of WhatsApp, then along comes a surprising new hurdle to stop that in its tracks. While messaging Android to Android or iPhone to iPhone is secure, messaging from one to the other is not.
Now even the FBI and CISA, the US cyber defense agency, are warning Americans to use responsibly encrypted messaging and phone calls where they can. The backdrop is the Chinese hacking of US networks that is...
