In a surprising twist, the FBI – along with CISA – has suddenly warned iPhone and Android users to use encrypted messages and calls when available. This follows a major hacking campaign of telecommunications networks in the US attributed to the salt typhoon in China, with officials warning of “a broad and significant cyber espionage campaign”.

While a senior FBI official asserted that while hackers “stole a large amount of records… about where, when, and with whom people communicated,” he assured that in most cases, “these stolen records do not contain voice or textual content contain”. But the hackers stole “call and text content” from “a limited number of people.”

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This appeared to be a surprising move by law enforcement, considering that end-to-end encryption has historically left authorities in the dark and unable to access user content even if ordered by a court . Even Apple, Google and Meta cannot access user content that is end-to-end encrypted on their platforms. However, the FBI actually spoke of “responsibly managed encryption,” which implies some form of lawful access.

The most important advice is simple. Do not use simple network text messages – including RCS, where these texts are not fully encrypted. This excludes Apple’s new RCS option for messaging to Android devices, even though messaging is secure within iMessage (to other Apple users) or within Google Messages (to other Android users).

While messages have driven most of the headlines following the FBI and CISA warnings, so have calls. Most cell phone conversations are not fully encrypted and are at risk of being intercepted, whether legitimately or not. It is network dependent. Using a platform like WhatsApp or Signal or FaceTime on iPhones solves this problem. While such calls remain uncommon in the United States and most of Europe, if you travel in Asia or Africa, you’ll find that many users default to secure calling out of distrust of networks.

So what do you do now? Luckily, timing is everything here. And Apple is about to release iOS 18.2, which will allow iPhone users to change their default messaging and calling apps for the first time. This means that clicking to call or send a message will not open the default Phone or iMessage app.

As Apple explains: “In iOS and iPadOS 18.2 and later, a user can select an app other than the Messages app to send instant messages.” The system launches the default messaging app, which is processed when a user is in one Another app taps an in: link.” It also told messaging platforms how to “prepare your app as the default messaging app.”

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You should change these two settings – calls and messages – once iOS 18.2 is released and works as billed. My suggestion is to use WhatsApp for messaging and calling, although Signal or any other fully encrypted app will do the job. These are two separate settings – one for messages and one for calls. You have to change both. The Default Apps menu option will be available in Settings after the iOS 18.2 update.

The FBI’s warning that extensive metadata was stolen in China’s hack of U.S. networks is crucial. This metadata means who you know, who you call, when you call them and for how long. This is the same metadata that is available to Meta and others and can be made available to law enforcement upon lawful request. It is supported by some platforms such as B. Signal, not recorded in the same way. However, this is a much less serious risk than content unless you work in a particularly sensitive or high-risk workplace or location.