ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — The FBI is issuing a warning to Americans after agents discovered a cyberattack allegedly tied to Chinese hackers involving text messages.

How do you protect yourself? Text safely.

You’ve heard the term “encrypted” all the time. It means phone calls and messages are scrambled so that the only people who can see or understand them, are the people sending and receiving the messages.

If you have an iPhone and you text another iPhone user, you’re doing it through Apple’s iMessage which is encrypted and safe. Texts between Android users over Google Messaging are also encrypted and safe to send.

The issue is when iPhone and Android users message one another. Those are SMS, or RCS messages and are not encrypted and are vulnerable to being intercepted by third-parties, including Chinese hackers.

iPhone users sending texts to an Android phone and vice-versa, should use a separate
messaging app. Those apps include What’s App, and Signal.

The problem many people face is that not all of their friends use these apps. Another option is to use Facebook’s Messenger app, which does use end-to-end encryption technology. It’s safe to send and receive texts, voice, and video calls.

So again, if you text using iMessage or Google Messages, those are safe. But if you send texts to someone with a different phone than you, you should use separate messaging app to keep your calls and texts private, heeding the FBI warning about text messages.

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