It’s a good time to return to landlines.
Government officials have alerted smartphone users to stop texting amid the growing threat of cyberattacks.
Malicious actors suspected to be from China, nicknamed Salt Typhoon, hacked into telecommunication companies such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon this year to spy on customers in one of the largest intelligence breaches in the country’s history, according to NBC News.
On Wednesday, the White House revealed that at least eight major US telecom companies were compromised in the cyberespionage attacks, which are “ongoing and likely larger in scale than previously understood,” according to the Daily Mail.
“Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here: Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication,” Jeff Greene, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CSIA), told NBC News.
“Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible.”
An FBI official who requested not to be named advised users seeking more secure methods of communicating should consider “a cellphone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant” two-factor authentication for personal accounts, per NBC News.
They also revealed the three kinds of data accessed by cybercriminals: call records and metadata, live phone calls and certain systems used by law enforcement to track communications.
Last month, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the US Committee on Armed Services’ cybersecurity subcommittee, warned that “unless you are using a specialized app,” anyone could be “subject to review” by the Chinese government, despite the country’s denial of cyberespionage attacks.
While Google Messages and iMessage over end-to-end encryption, texts between iPhones and Androids are unprotected and potentially left vulnerable to hackers. Instead, users can download apps like WhatsApp and Signal to communicate via encrypted messaging.
Greene encouraged Americans to “use your encrypted communications where you have it,” since officials are not confident all of the malicious actors have been booted from the telecom networks.
“We cannot say with certainty that the adversary has been evicted,” Greene told Politico. “We’re on top of tracking them down… but we cannot with confidence say that we know everything, nor would our partners.”
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