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Topics: Technology, iPhone, US News
Britt Jones
If you’re using your Android to text an iPhone, it’s time to think about the risks involved.
While technology has come a long way, there’s just one thing that you can’t be certain of.
Let’s put aside the Android versus iPhone debate for a moment and come to understand that both types of phones are okay to use.
It’s just that using them to communicate with each other is a major no no.
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This comes after the US Government realised that smartphone users could be likely to experience cyber-attacks.
The FBI even warned them to be wary of the chance.
There have been numerous reports of hackers taking people’s data, but this is different.
According to NBC news, there are malicious actors which may originate from China hacking into telecommunication companies to spy on customers.
Nicknamed the Salt Typhoon hacking group, the threat has allegedly illegally entered company’s systems such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.
The group allegedly uses advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks to gain access to targeted networks and it can stay there undetected for a lengthy period of time.
This allows them to be able to gather extensive information without being spotted.
Dubbed the largest intelligence breaches in the US’s history, the White House revealed that there’s at least eight companies compromised.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Senator Mark R. Warner labelled the Salt Typhoon attack the ‘worst telecom hack in [US] history by far’.
The Daily Mail reported that it’s ‘ongoing and likely larger in scale than previously understood’.
The US Gov believes that it has been going on for two years, and is still happening in the US now.
According to Jeff Greene, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CSIA), who told NBC News, that you need to encrypt your devices to be safe.
He said: “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.
“Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible.”
Greene encouraged people to ‘use your encrypted communications where you have it,’ as nobody knows whether the malicious actors have been evicted from the networks yet.
He told Politico: “We cannot say with certainty that the adversary has been evicted.
“We’re on top of tracking them down… but we cannot with confidence say that we know everything, nor would our partners.”
An FBI official told NBC News that ‘a cellphone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant’ two-factor authentication for personal accounts.
The group has also allegedly been able to gain access to records and metadata, live phone calls even some law enforcement systems, which are used to track communications.
While US officials think that the attach campaign is sponsored by Chinese authorities, the Chinese government has denied any involvement.
In response, a spokesperson from China's embassy in Washington said in a statement to the Associated Press: “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China.”