The FBI has warned Americans about sending regular text messages between Android devices 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 calling on apps like WhatsApp to prevent third parties from accessing conversations.
The warning comes as Chinese hackers have reportedly hacked several US networks that are “in progress and likely on a larger scale than previously thought.”
The cyber espionage campaign, called Salt Typhoon, surfaced this year when hackers attacked networks of several telecommunications companies.
The hackers used their access to target the metadata of a large number of customers, including information about the dates, times and recipients of calls and text messages.
They also managed to recover the actual audio files of calls and the contents of text messages from a much smaller number of victims.
Despite months of investigation, the true scale of the Chinese operation, including the total number of victims and whether the hackers still have any access to information, is currently unknown.
The FBI warns iPhone and Android users to use end-to-end encryption to text each other while hackers gain access to their content
Jeff Greene, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, issued the stark warning Tuesday, urging Americans to be vigilant during the hacking campaign.
He told it Politics that people should do that “use your encrypted communications where you have them,” adding that “that’s something we definitely need to do, kind of look at what it means in the long term, how we secure our networks.”
Encrypted apps protect users’ data by converting their phone calls and text messages into an unreadable format to prevent dangerous parties from gaining unauthorized access.
“Our suggestion, what we’ve been telling people internally, is not new here: Encryption is your friend, whether it’s text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communications,” Greene told me. NBC News.
“Even if the adversary can intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible.”
Several recent high-profile hacking incidents have been linked to China and what officials say is Beijing’s attempt to steal technical and government secrets while gaining access to critical infrastructure such as the power grid.
In September, the FBI announced that it had disrupted a massive Chinese hacking operation that installed malicious software on more than 200,000 consumer devices, including cameras, video recorders and home and office routers.
Jeff Greene, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, issued a stark warning Tuesday, urging Americans to be vigilant amid the hacking campaign.
The devices were then used to create a massive network of infected computers, or botnets, which could then be used to carry out other cybercrimes.
In October, officials said hackers with ties to China targeted the phones of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, along with people linked to Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
China has rejected accusations from US officials that it is engaged in cyber espionage targeting Americans.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington called the American accusations “disinformation.”
The Chinese government “strongly opposes and combats all types of cyber attacks,” spokesman Liu Pengyu wrote in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. “The U.S. must stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cybersecurity to smear and defame China.”