FBI Officials Are Urging Americans to Use Encrypted Messaging Apps to Avoid Hackers

A massive intelligence breach has led to a call from the FBI and CISA to move all of your messaging communication off of default messaging apps. Users are being encouraged to move all of their communication over to secure messaging apps, and after hearing the warning, many are wondering why the message seems to be so urgent.

Encrypted messaging apps are always the best way to keep your messages private, but officials say that using one now is more important than ever. Here's what we know about why they're saying that.

The FBI is encouraging users to take advantage of encrypted messaging apps because of an unprecedented cyberattack on AT&T and Verizon. The attack, which Microsoft is calling Salt Typhoon, is one of the biggest intelligence compromises in U.S. history, and it has yet to be fully remediated. China is apparently behind the attack, and infiltrated these companies in order to spy on their users.

In a call with reporters on Dec. 3, officials did not offer a firm timetable for when the networks would be free of interlopers and recommended moving communications over to encrypted messaging apps to ensure that the Chinese could not access the information. China has denied that it is involved in the hack and claims to oppose all cyber attacks wherever they happen.

“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,” Jeff Greene, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said.

The FBI official on the call, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "People looking to further protect their mobile device communications would benefit from considering using a cellphone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant."

The FBI official added that the hackers had targeted three specific kinds of information in their attack.

One of those data types was call records, which showed which phone numbers a phone had called and when. The hackers apparently focused on records in the Washington, D.C., area, but the FBI said that they were not planning to notify people whose call records had been accessed. Another type of breach involved listening in on live phone calls from specific targets, but the FBI declined to say how many alerts it had sent out to people involved in this breach.

The third type were breaches to systems that telecommunications companies use in compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which allows law enforcement agencies with court orders to track the phone activities of specific people. Apps that offer end-to-end encryption have long been the recommendation of intelligence officials for precisely this reason, but now, the warning is more urgent.

Apps like Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram, Session, and Briar. These apps all provide encryption, which means that your messages are much more secure, and it's much harder for hackers to see them.