The FBI and CISA, the US cyber defense agency, are warning Americans to use fully encrypted messaging and phone calls where they can, reports Forbes.
In other words, iPhone to iPhone texting is okay. Android to Android texting is okay. iPhone to Android and Android to iPhone isn’t.
Forbes points out that the backdrop of this advice is the Chinese hacking of US networks that is reportedly “ongoing and likely larger in scale than previously understood.” Fully encrypted comms is the best defense against this compromise, and Americans are being urged to use that wherever possible.
In this light, Apple’s adoption of RCS poses problems. There’s a lack of end-to-end encryption to protect cross-platform RCS. This was highlighted in Samsung’s recent celebratory PR release on the success of RCS, which included the caveat that only Android to Android messaging is secured.
Forbes says that “it remains a stark irony that while Google and Apple separately advise Android and iPhone users to rely on end-to-end encryption, when it comes to RCS it’s still missing, with no timeline in sight for a fix.”
