fbi warns iphone android users

 The FBI has issued a critical warning as the United States faces one of the most significant intelligence breaches in its history.

A large-scale cyberattack has targeted major telecommunication providers, including AT&T and Verizon, prompting officials to advise caution when sending text messages. In response to the growing threat, experts are urging the public to use encrypted messaging services as a protective measure.

The hacking operation, dubbed "Salt Typhoon" by Microsoft, has successfully infiltrated eight key telecommunication and infrastructure companies across the country.

According to two U.S. officials—a senior FBI official who requested anonymity and Jeff Greene, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—encryption is one of the best defenses against potential data interception.

In an interview with NBC, Greene emphasized the importance of encryption, stating: "Our recommendation, which we have shared internally for some time, remains the same: Encryption is your ally, whether for text messaging or encrypted voice communication. Even if an adversary manages to intercept the data, strong encryption renders it unreadable and useless."

                                               

 fbi warns iphone android users

A senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, advised that individuals looking to enhance the security of their mobile communications should consider using a phone that receives timely operating system updates, employs strong encryption, and supports phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for email, social media, and collaboration tools.

How Do Encrypted Messages Work?

Encrypted messaging works by converting information into scrambled text using a specialized encryption tool. This encoded data can only be deciphered using a "secret key," ensuring that only the intended recipient can access the message. This process prevents unauthorized third parties from intercepting and reading private communications.

What Information Was Compromised?

According to senior officials, the hackers managed to access three types of data. One of the most significant breaches involved call records, or metadata, which includes details about phone numbers contacted and the timing of calls. The attackers reportedly focused on call records from the Washington, D.C., area. However, NBC reports that the FBI does not plan to notify individuals whose phone metadata was compromiseA senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, advised that individuals looking to enhance the security of their mobile communications should consider using a phone that receives timely operating system updates, employs strong encryption, and supports phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for email, social media, and collaboration tools.

How Do Encrypted Messages Work?

Encrypted messaging works by converting information into scrambled text using a specialized encryption tool. This encoded data can only be deciphered using a "secret key," ensuring that only the intended recipient can access the message. This process prevents unauthorized third parties from intercepting and reading private communications.

What Information Was Compromised?

According to senior officials, the hackers managed to access three types of data. One of the most significant breaches involved call records, or metadata, which includes details about phone numbers contacted and the timing of calls. The attackers reportedly focused on call records from the Washington, D.C., area. However, NBC reports that the FBI does not plan to notify individuals whose phone metadata was compromised.

The second type of compromised data involved live phone calls of specific targets. However, the FBI official declined to disclose how many individuals had been alerted about this breach.

The third involved systems used by telecommunications companies under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). This law allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies, with court approval, to monitor and track communications.

The Key Takeaway: Avoid Basic Network Text Messaging

To protect your data, officials strongly advise against using standard SMS messaging, which lacks encryption and can be easily intercepted.

What Messaging Services Are Secure?

For safer communication, consider using encrypted messaging apps. iMessage (when sent between Apple devices) and Google Messages (with RCS enabled) offer end-to-end encryption. Other secure platforms include WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram’s "secret chats," all of which use strong encryption to protect messages from unauthorized access.

Hidden text "salting" is letting hackers craft devious email attacks to evade detection

Hackers Are Using "Hidden Text Salting" to Evade Email Security

Cybersecurity researchers are raising concerns over a deceptive hacking technique known as "hidden text salting," which helps phishing emails bypass security scans and land in inboxes undetected.

How Hackers Manipulate Emails

Cybercriminals are exploiting HTML and CSS properties to hide text within emails. According to a detailed report by Cisco Talos, attackers are:

• Setting the width of certain elements to zero
• Using "display: hidden" to conceal text
• Embedding zero-width space (ZWSP) and zero-width non-joiner (ZWNJ) characters
• Injecting irrelevant foreign-language text to mislead spam filters

These methods confuse email security systems, spam detectors, and brand name recognition tools, allowing phishing emails to slip past protections.

Real-World Examples

Cisco Talos researchers highlighted cases where hackers embedded hidden French text in phishing emails, causing Microsoft’s Exchange Online Protection (EOP) filter to misclassify them as legitimate.

In another instance, attackers used CSS tricks and ZWSP characters to disguise emails impersonating Wells Fargo and Norton LifeLock, making them appear authentic to victims.

Strengthening Email Security

To counteract these tactics, cybersecurity experts recommend that IT teams:

✅ Implement advanced filtering to analyze email structure, not just content
✅ Detect excessive use of hidden CSS properties like “visibility: hidden”
✅ Deploy AI-powered defenses to identify manipulated emails more effectively

Why Email Attacks Remain a Major Threat

Email remains one of the most exploited attack vectors due to its widespread use, simplicity, and low cost for large-scale phishing campaigns. The effectiveness of these attacks also stems from their ability to exploit the weakest link in security—the human user.

How to permanently erase data on SSDs, hard drives, & USB flash drives

Selling an Old SSD or Hard Drive? Simply Deleting Files Isn’t Enough

When selling or disposing of an SSD, hard drive, or an old laptop, most people delete their personal files beforehand. However, many don’t realize that sensitive information often remains on the drive, making it a potential goldmine for cybercriminals or curious buyers.

Hidden Data That May Still Be Accessible

Even after deleting files, various types of personal data can still be recovered, including:

🔹 Browser History – Can reveal web activity, saved login credentials, and even bank details.
🔹 Stored Emails – May expose business transactions, streaming subscriptions, and even clues about when your home is unoccupied.
🔹 FTP Access Credentials – Tools like FileZilla often store login details, potentially giving unauthorized access to company and organizational servers.
🔹 Saved Passwords in Browsers – Password managers in browsers provide direct access to accounts, including social media, banking, and other online services.

Why Complete Erasure is Necessary

Windows and various applications store personal data in multiple hidden locations, including system files and databases like the registry. Simply deleting files or formatting the drive does not permanently remove this data.

To protect your privacy, a full drive wipe is recommended before selling or discarding a device. The method of erasure depends on the type of storage device you are using.

How Different Storage Devices Handle Deleted Files

In the private sector, most modern computers are equipped with SSDs (Solid State Drives) due to their superior speed and durability compared to traditional hard drives. Unlike mechanical hard drives, recovering deleted files from an SSD is extremely difficult and, in many cases, impossible due to the way data is managed and overwritten.

For mechanical hard drives (HDDs), file recovery is much easier. However, these drives are now primarily found in NAS (Network-Attached Storage) devices and enterprise storage systems, where high capacity and lower costs take priority over speed.

When it comes to USB drives and external hard drives, their data management works differently from internal storage, requiring separate considerations for secure data deletion.

Let’s begin by focusing on internal SSDs and how to properly erase data from them.

Foundry

The first step is to remove any data partitions, such as drives D:, E:, F:, and so on, if they exist.

You can easily do this by formatting the partitions through Disk Management. To access it, right-click the Start icon on the taskbar and select "Disk Management." Alternatively, you can type it into the search bar on the taskbar. Once you're in Disk Management, right-click on the partition you want to delete and choose "Format."

In the dialog that appears, uncheck the "Perform quick format" option. This will ensure that the files are fully removed from the drive, rather than just their entries in the Master File Table (MFT). Click "OK" to start the process.

Deleting the System Partition with a Bootable CD or USB Stick

Deleting the system partition (usually the C: drive) is a more complex process. Since Windows is installed on this drive, it cannot delete itself. Therefore, you’ll need a bootable installation medium to proceed.

If you have a Windows DVD, you can use it to boot your computer. If you don't have a DVD, a bootable USB stick will be required for this process.

Foundry

The simplest way to create a bootable USB stick is by using the Media Creation Tool, which is available for free from Microsoft. After accepting the license terms, click "Next" and choose "USB flash drive" under “Select media to be used.”

You will need a USB stick with at least 8GB of capacity. Insert the USB stick and, if needed, click "Refresh drives." Once ready, click "Next" and the Media Creation Tool will erase the existing files on the stick and load the Windows installation files onto it.

Once the process is complete, the USB stick will be bootable. Insert it into your computer and boot from it. When the country settings appear, click "Next" and then "Install now." Select "I don’t have a product key" and choose one of the available Windows versions.

Check the box to accept the license agreement, click "Next," and select "Custom: Install Windows only." Then choose the system drive (usually identified by its partition name) and click "Delete."

You can now close the window to cancel the installation. The SSD is now fully wiped, with drive C: no longer existing and listed as unallocated space.

SSD Data Destruction

With an SSD, data recovery is virtually impossible due to the Trim function, which is described in the next section.

Making SSDs and Hard Drives Unusable

If you don’t want to pass your SSD or hard drive to someone else, you can physically destroy it to ensure no one can access the data.

To begin, remove the drive from the computer. This can also be done with most laptops by removing the cover on the underside (secured with screws), behind which you will find the SSD, usually just plugged in.

To render the drive unreadable, you can either drill a hole through it or hammer a strong nail through the housing. Caution: This method can be dangerous, so take care. A single hole will typically cause enough damage to make data recovery almost impossible.

Secure Deletion with Trim

The Trim command helps ensure even data writing on SSDs, which extends their lifespan. This feature is supported by almost all SATA SSDs.

Trim has been included in Windows since version 7 and is enabled by default. Normally, you don’t need to take any action; Trim runs automatically in the background. When you delete data from an SSD, Trim informs the drive that those storage areas are no longer in use.

When the computer enters idle mode, the drive’s Active Garbage Collection process will delete any areas marked as invalid by Trim.

Permanently Deleting Data from Hard Drives

Hard drives don’t have the Trim command, so data can often still be recovered after deletion or formatting. However, there are methods to make data permanently unreadable.

For data partitions, tools like Ascomp Secure Eraser can be used. This tool doesn’t just delete files but overwrites the drive with random data.

To use Secure Eraser, click “Securely erase hard drive/partition” on the main screen, select the drive, and click the downward arrow next to the “Start erasure process” button.

A menu will appear with several overwriting options. A single overwrite is enough to make files unrecoverable, so select either the “Low” or “Normal” option. Click “Start deletion” to begin the process.

ASCOMP

For system partitions, the process differs. Since Windows cannot delete itself, you need to boot your computer using a live system from a CD/DVD or USB stick.

Once you’ve done that, you can delete the data on the C: drive. Unlike an SSD, you’ll need to overwrite the deleted memory areas with new data so that the original content can no longer be recovered.

For this, the free tool Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) is effective. Start by downloading the ISO file, then plug a USB stick into your PC. The USB stick doesn’t need to be large, as DBAN requires only about 16MB of space.

Next, download and install the free Rufus tool, then select the DBAN ISO file in the “Startup type” field. Let Rufus create a bootable USB stick, and once done, boot your computer from this USB drive.

With Darik’s Boot and Nuke, you can boot your PC from the USB stick and securely delete and overwrite the data on your drives. DBAN operates through a minimal Linux system without a graphical interface. After booting, you can automatically delete and overwrite all data on the hard drive by typing the command

+---------------------------+
+---------------------------+

Alternatively, you can select specific options using the Enter key.

Securely Erasing USB Drives

While USB sticks and hard drives are similar to SSDs, they do not support the Trim command, so it’s important to format the stored files after deleting them.

For hard drives and SSDs, Ascomp Secure Eraser is a suitable tool, but for USB drives, you should use the freeware Disk Wipe.

To use Disk Wipe, open the program, select the drive, and click “Wipe Disk.” In the first window, you’ll be prompted to choose the file system—NTFS is usually the best option. After selecting “Next,” choose how the data should be overwritten. The “One Pass Zeros” or “One Pass Random” options are sufficient.

In both cases, Disk Wipe will overwrite the data. Click “Next,” enter “erase all” in the input field, click “Finish,” and confirm the erasure process. The program will first format the drive and then start overwriting the individual memory cells.

Deleting Data on NAS Devices

NAS devices often contain multiple hard drives or SSDs, formatted with a Linux file system. For secure deletion, you should use the specific commands of the NAS operating system.

Both Synology and Qnap NAS devices support secure data deletion. On Synology, open the “Storage Manager” in the main menu, select “HDD/SSD,” and click on “Action > Secure Erase” after selecting the drive. You might need to remove the drive from the storage pool first.

For Qnap devices, navigate to “System -> Backup/Restore > Reset to factory settings” in the Control Panel, then click “Restore factory settings & format all volumes.”

Alternatively, you can remove the hard drives/SSDs from the NAS, install them in your Windows PC, format them with NTFS, and then follow the steps outlined above to securely overwrite them.

5 Antivirus Software Brands to Avoid

Choosing the right antivirus software can be overwhelming with so many options available. Antivirus programs have been a staple in home computing since the early 2000s, making computers safer and more accessible. After the initial rise of computer viruses, these programs became essential in protecting devices.

However, that assumption may no longer hold true. Today, antivirus software often serves as an unnecessary add-on that could cause more issues than it solves. Relying on a single application to safeguard your entire system is generally not a wise approach. In fact, some of the most well-known antivirus brands are best avoided. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most problematic options.

Norton

Norton is one of the most recognizable antivirus brands, with millions of users worldwide relying on it to protect their sensitive data for over 20 years. Despite its popularity, one of the most misleading aspects of Norton’s offering is the lack of real-time protection, which undermines its primary purpose. Additionally, antivirus software is supposed to run seamlessly in the background, but Norton often makes its presence felt, which can be intrusive.

McAfee

McAfee is better known for its persistent pop-ups than for its actual protection service. When users do mention the service, it's often accompanied by frustration beyond the interruptions caused by those pop-ups. One major complaint is the lack of control over updates, with many users reporting that their activities are abruptly interrupted with no easy way to stop it. In the end, McAfee feels outdated, while other options might still offer a few redeeming features

MacKeeper

MacKeeper has a notorious reputation, with a long history of questionable practices. At first glance, it can even appear to be a scam or malware—exactly the kind of software you aim to avoid when looking for antivirus protection. Despite its heavy advertising, even seasoned experts have likely considered using it at some point. Fortunately, Apple’s operating system doesn’t require third-party antivirus software, and many Apple users highlight this as a key selling point for their devices

Webroot

Webroot could easily come with a warning advising users not to try uninstalling it. The process is notoriously difficult, with many users giving up entirely and realizing too late that they should have steered clear of the software. Reporting issues to the service is also poorly designed, which is a critical feature for any antivirus software. Webroot’s main appeal is its low price, but as the saying goes, you often get what you pay for. While the cost may be tempting, it’s not always worth the hassle.

Avast

Avast is another company that made a grave mistake by selling its customers' data to third parties—a move that irreparably damaged its reputation. Before this scandal, the software was also notorious for bombarding users with overly alarming pop-ups. Antivirus software should be about protection, not scaring users.

While antivirus software can be helpful, it’s not always necessary. You can save both money and headaches by steering clear of antivirus programs, especially these five well-known brands that provide subpar (or worse) services. For better protection against malware and viruses, rely on built-in options like Windows Defender, which comes pre-installed with all Windows 10 and 11 systems, or consider more trustworthy alternatives like Malwarebytes.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Carlos Amarillo/Shutterstock.com.

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