US Officials Recommend Using Encrypted Apps for Messaging

us officials warn users to use encrypted apps or don't send text messages but I thought they hated encryption find out why they're changing their tune in this video hey everybody welcome back to ecurity Planet I'm your host Davin Jackson and I want to apologize in advance for the amount of sarcasm you're going to see in this video today we're going to talk about a recent warning from the United States government about sending those text messages you wouldn't want your parents or your boss to see we see you just kidding kind of after the Chinese advanced persistent threat Group Salt typhoon breached major telecommunication companies United States officials are urging Americans to avoid sending text messages or using encrypted apps like signal or Whatsapp when sending SMS messages Jeff Green the executive assistant director of cyber security at the cyber security and infrastructure Security Agency also known as siza said in a call with FBI and other senior officials 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's encrypted it will make it impossible now there's one part I want to focus on in that quote the part where he says encryption is your friend and the reason I want to highlight that is because that wasn't always the case for years us officials opposed the widespread use of encrypted messaging apps arguing that such Services were a threat to law enforcement and National Security Congress even introduced the earna act in late 2020 which proposed stripping platforms of their legal protections unless they complied with government mandated access Provisions encrypted messaging app signal and other privacy Advocates fiercely opposed the bill as it was seen as a direct assault on privacy rights signal even threatened to withdraw from the US market if the nna act or similar anti- encryption bills were passed according to them Congress could potentially Force companies to create back doors for law enforcement I'm sure this is a brilliant idea I mean what's the worst that can happen other than undermining the core security principles of privacy and end to-end encryption H by the way remember this part because we're going to come back to it later although the initial bill wasn't passed it seemed like both sides had dug in and they weren't willing to budge as the bill was reintroduced in 2022 and 2023 and then salt typhoon happened for those who don't know this sophisticated operation has compromised at least eight major USIC communication providers including AT&T Verizon and Lumen Technologies salt typhoon also accessed the communications of several prominent politicians and presidential campaign members so remember how I mentioned one of the provisions in the earnit ACT earlier you know the one brilliant idea about back doors for law enforcement yeah that one well it turns out that once the attackers got into the network they may have used the same back doors used by law enforcement to access the wir Taps that's right the same back TOS that were created for law enforcement was used by the criminals as of this recording the breach has not been fully remediated and US officials have refused to set a timetable for declaring when the Telecom systems will be deemed safe from attackers to learn more about how devastating the salt typhoon attack is check out our previous video on this channel the attacked by the Chinese hacking group has caused Congress to rethink its policies holding several briefings with security agencies and cyber security companies to assess the damage and figure out how to prevent further compromise from the Chinese group or any other future threat actors which is where I guess they decided that the enemy of my enemy is my friend what was once viewed as suspicious and a challenge for law enforcement encryption is now recognized as an essential component to maintaining the Integrity of national infrastructure wow you don't say the FBI and siza are advising individuals and organizations to adopt encrypted communication tools as a defense against state sponsored cyber threats the change of course reinforces what Security Professionals have been saying for I don't know um how about all along that strong encryption is not only a tool for privacy but also plays a pivotal role in protecting against cyber attacks and data breaches which wouldn't you know it just so happens to be a crucial component to National Security who would have thought but seriously the salt typhoon attack revealed vulnerabilities in systems previously thought secure highlighting the need for robust cyber security measures at all levels and also making this one of the biggest and costliest I Told You So moments in recent history however it also marks a turning point in how the United States government views encryption the advancement in nation state cyber threats has forced policy makers to reconsider their stance as state sponsored attacks become more frequent and sophisticated encryption will continue to play a vital role in safeguarding both the personal privacy and National Security and while they figure that out you should probably find a messaging app that offers end to-end encryption and start using it signal is great and easy to use and it also allows you to automatically delete messages upon reading minus the whole tape self-destructing thing like in the old days there's also WhatsApp by meta but they do collect a lot of metadata and iPhone users you don't need to worry about this because Apple's iMessage is also end to end encrypted which I'm sure is something else they're going to use to claim their superiority to Android users here's a bonus tip use multiactor authentication on your messaging app to give you added security just in case someone tries to log into your account so what do you think will the United States finally see the error in their ways and no longer require apps and companies to provide back doors that week in privacy or will we be right back to normal once this whole thing is resolved and blows over if you enjoyed this video please like it and subscribe to the ecurity planet YouTube channel thanks for watching I'm Davin Jackson and until next time stay informed stay secure and stay safe

This transcript was generated automatically from the video's captions and may contain errors.