Concerned about the vulnerability of our mobile messaging systems, the FBI and U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) want Americans to use encrypted messaging to ensure their communications stay hidden from foreign hackers.
“The request for end-to-end encryption is an important one,” said Jack Danahy, vice president of strategy at NuHarbor security. “Encryption is the means through which we scramble data. We take data from its origin, and we mix it up using keys. Think like scrambling like a puzzle. And at the other end, that person has a key as well. So, they're the only people who know how to unwind it.”
Texting between the same platforms, such as iPhone to iPhone or Android to Android, is encrypted and secure. However, messages between iPhone and Android phones are not encrypted and can be vulnerable to being intercepted by third parties.
“The problem is people share so much through those mechanisms, whether it's a conversation with somebody, whether it's sending a text to somebody,” said Danahy. “People sometimes send even passwords and usernames through text messages. So, if you think that this kind of data is being exposed to people who are trying to steal it, the problem gets a lot more severe.”
Experts recommend using apps like WhatsApp and Signal, which provide end-to-end encryption for text messages, voice calls and video calls.
“How important is it? It depends on how important your privacy is and the kind of messages that you send,” Danahy said.
Both apps also allow users to communicate securely across different devices, ensuring that messages are safe from interception regardless of the platform.
“We've really made a lot of progress in helping this become less of a threat, but there's still more work to do,” Danahy explained.
