Android and Apple users: Critical RCS messaging protection is still months

[phillynews215]

Credit: Ryan Haines / Android Authority

• The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) has said that it’s working on bringing end-to-end encryption to different messaging platforms that support the RCS protocol.
• Unfortunately, the industry body did not share a specific timeline and said that it will update the market in a few months.
• That means RCS texting between Apple and Android devices will continue to remain vulnerable for an unforeseeable period of time.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently warned Apple and Android users to stop texting each other using the RCS protocol because of a massive telecommunication breach by hacking group Salt Typhoon. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI, Salt Typhoon was responsible for compromising major carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, in what is being considered one of the largest infrastructure attacks in US history. Following the breach, which mostly affected high-value government officials, CISA and the FBI have issued a wide public interest advisory for US citizens to use chat apps that offer end-to-end encryption.




More...