Screen_Shatter

No prob, this stuff is difficult to keep up with. I'm still always learning and hoping I'm doing it right

I'm not a security expert so my ability to explain is limited, but no, emails have long used encryption protocols like SSL to prevent such problems. However, your email provider may scan and read your emails. That's not much different than a text message service reading those messages, but you can choose your provider. From what I can tell proton.me is the way to go for resolving that issue - they provide encryption which prevents their own machines and employees from being able to read your messages and other data. Otherwise, your email is basically as secure as your passwords are.

Its just contracts for power, they don't own or get involved in running the plants. Its still all being run by the power companies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_spoofing

So, it's not that the message itself is insecure, but the inability to verify the sender makes phishing attacks possible or similar things. I get a text from a random number saying "click this link to pay your bill!" And I don't have any way to trust its legit.

SIM swaps make it so people can take over your phone number temporarily and then generate 2fa requests to gain access to accounts. Doing the swap usually involves bribing someone or gaining access to a providers database by other means, but its been done a lot.

There are ways to prevent this, but the most straight forward is using a MFA app. Barring that 2FA via email is the next best thing.

I still don't trust them, especially when they announced they were scanning images. I don't really care their reasons for it, that's intrusive. I can't trust any closed source tech, no matter what they say.

I have some crypto, some stocks, etc. For many things I still need standard banking though. Crypto just isn't there yet. Maybe someday... But having money distributed is still smart either way, so I have many baskets for my eggs.

My banks are like that too. Of course I can't speak to anyone who might influence that decision. Steam has better security than almost any other account I have. I appreciate them for that but it also seems ludicrous to me that my video games are more secure than my bank accounts.

Its essentially what the apple vs FBI encryption legal battle was about years ago:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93FBI_encryption_dispute

I'm not really a fan of apple, but I was very happy they stood their ground on that one. They were absolutely right to do so.

SMS spoofing and SIM swapping have been around for ages. It was never secure and that's always been known. The number of companies that rely on it despite sending me a zillion other fucking useless emails is too damn high! Email, or better yet, an authenticator app, are far more secure. Not perfect, but better.

I miss when I had to go on pornhub to see this many assholes in one picture

I just got a new phone and someone asked me "do you like it?" I hesitated to answer and they assumed "that's a no". Well, not really, it works well and does what I need it to. But do I like it? Not really, its a tool of necessity for operating in modern society. I like my steam deck, I like my speakers, I like my bike, but liking my phone is sort of similar to liking my work laptop. It's just a thing I have to have or be really very inconvenienced.

There's five horsemen here