The FBI has issued a warning to Americans about sending regular text messages between Androids 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 phone calls 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 ‘ongoing and likely larger in scale than previously understood.’
Dubbed Salt Typhoon, the cyberespionage campaign 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 on the dates, times and recipients of calls and texts.
They also succeeded in retrieving the actual audio files of calls and content from texts from a much smaller number of victims.
Despite months of investigation, the true scale of China’s operation, including the total number of victims or whether the hackers still have some access to information, is currently unknown.
Jeff Greene, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, issued the stark warning Tuesday, urging Americans to be vigilant amid the hacking campaign.
He told Politico that people