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Are sms secure

E

epi117

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2010
272
0
Is it a valid statement to say sms are secure?

Assuming your phone requires code to open, that you can do remote wipe and that your services provider erases messages after three days, would this be a valid statement?
 
Lol just within reason, i guess my question is, is it assecure as a phone call Ceteris Paribus.
 
No. Messages pass through a server that you don't have access to, at least I think that's how it rolls.

Never consider digital data to be secure after it leaves your hands.
 
Many cellular carriers store all SMS on their servers for 6 months or so, just in case they get subpoenaed by law enforcement.
 
If you have to ask, then you probably shouldn't be doing what you're doing over text :cool:
 
epi117 said:
Pretty sure its more like 3 days
Click to expand...

Actually its not. You can request a list of all sent text messages at the end of a billing cycle. Which means they need to be on file. Nice guess though...
 
Sorry for so many questions wrting a paper as we speak.

When youbackup to itunes, does it store all your text messages? Newb question but ihave never really paid attention on previous backups.
 
epi117 said:
Sorry for so many questions wrting a paper as we speak.

When youbackup to itunes, does it store all your text messages? Newb question but ihave never really paid attention on previous backups.
Click to expand...

I've done a restore in the past which also restored the texts I had on my phone at the time of the initial backup- so yes in a sense it does store them.
 
Carriers don't say how long text messages have been saved. Some say Verizon keeps them for 3 days, but I doubt it. Usually, the only way to get them is from a court order. But you can see when they were send and received, just not the actual content.
 
It is decidedly NOT secure at any point. It is easy to read them off of your phone, it is easy to read them (in plain text) on the screen of the core network and it is easy to read them off of the recipients' phones.
 
Tarzanman said:
It is decidedly NOT secure at any point. It is easy to read them off of your phone, it is easy to read them (in plain text) on the screen of the core network and it is easy to read them off of the recipients' phones.
Click to expand...

Add to that the underlying cellular data network encryption has been shown to be compromised. Not much to prevent people from just grabbing messages out of the air.
 
Thanks for your insightful replies, just finished typing up talking points for usage of text with patients.

We are never going to text health info, just appt reminders etc with op in.
 
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