Google does not- it only encrypts between the device and its server, not end-to-end, although it’s reportedly working to address this.Īpple launched iMessage as an alternative to the WhatsApp-style over-the-top messengers, adding rich functionality and security, but limiting that to the Apple user community. The two platforms operate different security: Apple’s iMessage is end-to-end encrypted, and while there’s less public information on this than with WhatsApp or Signal, it is secure. Longer messages, MMS attachments, financial details, private data, sensitive information.Īlmost all smartphones now run on either Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating systems, and so their default applications have become the front-end for inbuilt messaging. But the technology is now used for much more than that. However simple and un-smart your phone might be, it will be able to send and receive plaintext short-form messages. The advantage of SMS, though, is that it is as ubiquitous as it gets. As FireEye warned at the time, “users and organizations must consider the risk of unencrypted data being intercepted several layers upstream in their cellular communication chain.” Last year I reported on hackers compromising global telcos to collect SMS traffic between targeted senders and recipients. When you send an SMS, while it might be secure between your phone and your network, once there it can be easily intercepted and collected. SMS is at the other end of the security spectrum, built on an archaic architecture that sits inside the many cellular networks around the world.
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