Not exactly brag-worthy: The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is tooting its own horn for no successful hacks during the U.S. election. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t interference. Russia ramped up its disinformation campaigns on social media, and several bogus bomb threats made at polling stations were traced back to them. And don’t forget China hacked phones belonging to President-elect Trump and JD Vance.
Biggest hack in US history: How to encrypt your communications
I’ve been talking about it for weeks, and now it’s all over the news: Communist Chinese hackers infiltrated telecommunications giants like AT&T and Verizon and wormed their way into government surveillance systems. The massive breach was detected over a month ago, but it’s been going on for over a year.
These hackers even intercepted live phone calls from Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and Kamala Harris’s staffers.
And what’s our government doing about it? The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, just released a “how-to” for secure communications … a whole month later.
Should you panic?
No. Now, it’s not good Chinese hackers are snooping around, but their targets are typically high-profile individuals and politicians. If you’re an average person texting friends and family and not sharing espionage information, don’t worry. Spies, keep reading.
What’s the big deal?
Text messages sent using Apple iMessages are encrypted, but only between iPhones. Text from your iPhone to someone using an Android device, and that message (SMS or RCS) is unencrypted. Android-to-Android texts are generally encrypted through Google Messages, but texting on an Android phone to an iPhone? Not protected.
The same goes for email. Standard Gmail or Outlook messages are vulnerable once they leave that network. Gmail to Gmail? Safe. Gmail to Outlook? No. (More about this below.)
There are tools that fix this problem
When you’re texting about the latest Hallmark movie, privacy probably isn’t at the top of your mind. But it needs to be if you’re sharing financial info (including account numbers, Social Security numbers and PINs), login credentials or passwords, or private health info.
Use a secure messaging app
The key here is end-to-end encryption. Popular picks include Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, Session and Briar. These apps also have: