If you’re like many people across the world, chances are that you’ve used your device’s SMS app to send sensitive text messages before. But is using an SMS a safe practice? According to experts at Tornote, using your SMS app to send important (private) texts is not secure. One reason for this is that your texts won’t be encrypted with an SMS app.
Instead of using SMS, we advise you to consider using the best third-party text messaging app, such as Tornote.io. In the rest of this post, you’ll see reasons why using unencrypted SMS to send private text is not advised.
Why exactly is SMS unencrypted?
Before going ahead to answer this question, let’s start by talking about what end-to-end encryption means. In case you don’t know, end-to-end encryption is a security practice that involves encrypting your text messages and sensitive data throughout your conversations. “Encrypting your text” means you’re turning your plain text messages into cipher texts. With a main key, only the intended recipients of the messages will be able to decipher the texts.
That said, the bottom line is that end-to-end encryption helps to prevent prying eyes and third parties from viewing your private texts.
Effects of using unencrypted SMS to send messages
Yes, every SMS app is designed to help you send messages quickly. But are these apps secure enough to help you send protected texts? The simple answer is no because your standard SMS is unencrypted. As such, you should expect your mobile service provider to see every content of your sensitive text messages.
Here are a few reasons why using unencrypted SMS is not safe:
- As earlier mentioned, an unencrypted SMS message can be viewed by third parties, including your mobile service provider. This means you can never rely on SMS for your privacy. “No privacy” or “unauthorized access” means you should never use your SMS app to send private texts that carry sensitive data regarding you.
- The Signaling System 7 (SS7) issue is a very big concern in the global security sector. The current SS7 standard was introduced in 1970. Because of the antiquated security principles of this standard, mobile cyber hackers can easily exploit its vulnerabilities. SS7 attacks mostly target mobile phone conversations today.
Since SS7 is used to facilitate SMS messaging, we’ll advise you to stay away from using SMS apps to send your private texts. This way, you can always keep your private messages secure from prying eyes and hackers.
- Man-in-the-Middle attacks also target SMS messages. In this cases, the hackers will intercept your private texts. After that, they may end up reading or modifying the content of the messages.
Use third-party messaging apps instead
To keep your text messages protected from third parties, such as your mobile service provider and the government, we advise you to consider using top third-party messaging apps, such as Signal and Tornote.io.
You should go for Tornote.io if you’re more interested in sending anonymous notes through protected texts. With Tornote, you can easily create anonymous notes, which can only be accessed by the intended recipient. The good news about this online service is that it allows you to set ‘self-destructive messages’. This means you can send protected texts, which will automatically disappear immediately after the intended recipient views or downloads them.
Tornote is effective in protecting your text messages because it features end-to-end encryption. Unlike unencrypted SMS, Tornote will surely help you send secure notes and give you rest of mind.