Federal officials said on Tuesday that encryption is the most effective method of concealing communications from Beijing’s spies and that a huge Chinese hacking campaign against American telecom companies hasn’t been completely eradicated.
A key is needed to decipher a message that has been jumbled by encryption technology.
Governments and hackers that intercept them as they travel across telecommunications infrastructure will only see gibberish because different app developers and platforms have been using the technology in various ways for over ten years. Although implementing the technology has historically led to complaints from law enforcement organizations, such as the FBI, it also allows for more private communication.
Telecommunications companies often keep call and SMS logs for a short period of time, including which phone number contacted or texted, when, and the contents of the SMS texts. However, audio is typically unrecorded. As a result, hackers like those involved in the Chinese campaign—dubbed Salt Typhoon by Microsoft—can more easily obtain vast quantities of data on phone records and some saved text messages, but they must be specifically targeted to listen in on particular phone calls as they occur.
Using communications apps like Signal or WhatsApp that have end-to-end encryption between Signal and WhatsApp users is the easiest option for regular users to transmit encrypted messages or make encrypted calls. Every user of an encrypted chat app has the special code to decipher a message sent to that account when end-to-end encryption is in place. Crucially, neither the app’s operator nor the corporate owner have access to that key, so even if a court requests it or it is compromised, they will not be able to decrypt an encrypted message.
Signal’s encryption, which cryptographers consider to be among the best commercially available, is automatically used by WhatsApp and Signal to protect all of their messages.
Additionally, users of both apps can use the internet to make encrypted phone calls to other users.
However, many Americans regularly text with end-to-end encryption enabled, even if they are unaware of it, even in the absence of apps like Signal and WhatsApp.
The Signal protocol is automatically used to encrypt chats when users of Google Messages or iMessage text other users of Google Messages.
However, when users of Google communications and iMessage text each other, for example, when an iMessage user texts a Google Messages user, the communications are encrypted using Rich Communications Services, which Google decrypts in the United States. Although they are theoretically hidden from telecom companies, they are not encrypted end-to-end and may be viewed by hackers who might breach businesses or by Google under court orders.
Both Apple and Google provide encryption for phone calls made using their internet-based calling apps, FaceTime and Google Fi.
Although the contentious software Telegram purports to provide end-to-end encryption for user messages, some prominent cryptographers are hesitant to recommend it because portions of its code isn’t publicly testable and it doesn’t encrypt conversations by default.
In late spring or early summer, the FBI started looking into Salt Typhoon. The United States thinks that Chinese intelligence got extensive access, including call and text message records for numerous individuals, especially in the Washington, D.C., area, by hacking into AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies. Members of the Trump and Harris camps, as well as the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were able to listen in on phone conversations in some situations.
As it usually does when a Western government or business accuses it of using its extensive cyberespionage capabilities, China refuted the charge. China strongly condemns the United States’ unfounded smear assaults against China, according to an emailed statement from a representative for China’s embassy in Washington.
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