If you don’t currently use secure messaging apps, i.e. those which have end-to-end encryption, and in fact aren’t even sure what that actually means, it might be a good time to learn about your options and start.
Last week, U.S. officials said that Salt Typhoon, a massive Chinese hacking campaign, has compromised the private communications of an unknown number of Americans.
Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recommended that people switch to encrypted messaging and also suggested using encrypted voice calling options as well for phone calls.
No one knows when or if non-encrypted messages and calls will be made safe from prying Chinese eyes but there is no guarantee that this type of hack can’t happen again so it pays to investigate your options.
The first step is to assess your risk level. If you’re a spy, a journalist, an activist regardless of cause, a journalist, or even if you just travel frequently, you should already by using tools with end-to-encryption. Everyone else can breathe a sigh of relief but only for a moment before starting to look into a switch.
If you don’t know what end-to-end encryption is – and it’s a global privacy standard at least conceptually – a good example is to imagine a scenario where, instead of sending a text, you write a message on a piece of paper and place it into a box for which only the recipient has a key, while the box itself cannot be scanned or opened by anyone without the key. A return message is sent in a similar manner.
When using a messaging system such as Apple’s iMessage, which has end-to-end encryption, the creator of the message can see it on his phone as can the recipient, but no one else along the message’s route from one device to the other – be it the mobile operator, the phone company, and so on -can view it.
Not all encrypted messaging products are the same and there are a few gotchas to look out for, ranging from where the messaging services provider can see a message in its cloud plus non-encrypted communications can be subpoenaed and read by law enforcement officials.
If you have an Apple iPhone and exclusively interact with others who have Apple devices and you limit your messaging activity to iMessage and you’re calling to FaceTime, you now know all you need to know.
If, however, you use an Android-powered phone and your communications partners use varied tools, you should consider a tool such as Signal, an open-source cross-platform free tool made by the non-profit Signal Foundation that can be installed on a computer, iPhone, Android device, while WhatsApp, owned by Facebook parent Meta, is also a safe option.
In using WhatsApp and iCloud, make sure you turn off WhatsApp message backups turned and iCloud backups of chat data for extra security.
With all this discussion over chat, the reader could be forgiven were he worrying about e-mail. Encrypted e-mail does exist but it’s not for the faint hearted so the best advice to follow is to avoid e-mail for any sensitive topics whatsoever.
Finally, keep in mind that landline phones are almost never secure so don’t tell Grandmother about the plans for the secret invasion.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
