FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Urging Americans to use Encrypted Communications

Do not use SMS or PSTN voice!

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency say the major Chinese hack began in late spring, and they are strongly urging Americans to use encrypted communications.

Yep, do not use SMS or PSTN voice, that’s an exceptionally strong statement. One of the reasons the PSTN has become so insecure is telcos have outsourced so much of their infrastructure to third parties. In some cases foreign owned businesses with links to China. The PSTN attack surface is vast, it’s a whack-a-mole game to protect it, but with little whacking of the hackers as the third parties point fingers at each other.

It’s been going on for Years

Last year we pointed out the risks of TCR (The Campaign Registry) being owned by Tata Communications. Rick Joyce has the highest security clearance because he was Chief Counsel to the Chief Information Officer/Assistant Commandant for C4IT. He did this as an individual, no politics, simply trying to protect his country. The MEF did a hit job on Rick, the MEF should be ashamed of themselves given the current hacking events.

Even though I, like you, have become indifferent to all the companies holding my data being hacked, and our personal details exposed yet again on the dark web. Scams continue to rise, as covered in The Honest CPaaS Review. The big risk with SMS and PSTN voice is your current actions in real time can be used against you.

For example, Daniel Gill, founder and CEO of Augnet shared the reality of this real time hacking with AIT (Artificially Inflated Traffic).

I’ve quantified the scale of the problem in The Honest CPaaS Review. Explaining the massive fraud taking place, and the actions every telco must take to protect its customers and country.

Well-Respected Lawmakers are highlighting the problem

The sustained hacking of telecoms is an issue of increasing concern for most US lawmakers, with Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) describing it as the “most serious breach in our history.

Unless you are using a specialized app, any one of us and every one of us today is subject to the review by the Chinese Communist government of any cell phone conversation you have with anyone in America,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s cyber subcommittee, said during a panel at last month’s Halifax International Security Forum.

This isn’t some recent political firestorm, as some telecom bodies have claimed. Last year Rick Joyce was pointing this out.  Eric Troutman also pointed this out when he saw how the MEF and TCR lawyers (Latham Watkins) were attempting the discredit Rick.

I’ve shared the data, the methods, and tens of billions being stolen. I’m pleased to see lawmakers taking the issue seriously. But remember, the MEF asked its members to ignore my work. Shame on them for not focusing on truth and integrity like TADSummit.

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