Stop Texting—What Now After FBI Warning?
Stop texting — what now after FBI warning?
When the FBI and America’s cyber defense agency warned Americans to stop texting, it created one of the viral tech stories of 2024. Prompted by Chinese hackers marauding through U.S. networks, the advice was to use fully encrypted messaging at all times — which SMS/texting is not. Apple and Google both offer secure options within their respective walled gardens, but not between iPhones and Androids.
But that was more than four months ago. Since then we have seen a concerted response to Salt Typhoon — albeit the threat remains, Signalgate and an NSA warning that even fully encrypted messaging has security vulnerabilities.
So what’s the advice now — do you still need to stop texting?
Unfortunately, nothing has really changed since December’s flurry of warnings and headlines. But we do now have confirmation that fully encrypted RCS messaging is coming to both Google’s and Apple’s phones, delivering end-to-end encrypted stock messaging between the two operating systems for the first time. But it’s not here yet and there’s still no firm detail on when it’s expected, albeit we assume later this year.
In reality, even those users who turned to WhatsApp or Signal or (dare I say it) Telegram in the wake of the FBI warning have reverted to past practices. Even though technical warnings that SMS is woefully insecure have still come most months. When you see talk of two-factor authentication bypasses or interceptions, this is almost always malware running on a phone reading text messages as they come in.
As such, CISA’s advice has not changed — use end-to-end encrypted platforms for texts and calls where you can. And consider NSA’s advice on how to set this up. But bear in mind that the FBI wants “responsible encryption,” meaning the same kind of lawful access being pushed by the U.K. government and even legislators in Florida, if you want to look closer to home, as well as various other governments around the world.
My recommendation remains WhatsApp as a daily messenger given its install base, and Signal for more sensitive chats. That will change come the RCS upgrade, which is a genuine game-changer. You should not be using SMS for anything these days, including 2FA and other marketing messages and business updates.
Ironically, the Meta versus iMessage argument is now running in its unredacted form as the Facebook/WhatsApp owners deals with its latest antitrust challenge. You can expect much more of this as and when encrypted RCS takes on WhatsApp. It will be the biggest threat to Meta’s messaging machine in a decade.
Beyond the security of the messages themselves, the current viral tech story in the U.S. relates to toll and package scams and even federal and local law enforcement impersonation, including a new warning that such scam texts can lead to calls which in turn even lead to your physical credit card details being stolen over the air.
We expect more detail on the timing of RCS’s upgrade through the summer.