A Chinese cyber attack likely stole data from more than 1 million customers, it reports ABC News. The spies exploited the vulnerabilities and hacked into the communications of AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies customers. In some cases, officials believe hackers listened in on live conversations and read private texts.

It is believed that the intention was to start broad and narrow the focus to spying on prominent political figures. ABC notes that leaders in the Trump and Harris campaigns were targeted. However, due to the unprecedented scope of the attack, security experts are urging all Americans to use encrypted messaging apps.

Related: Starbucks forced to go back on time to pay employees after 'Ransomware Incident'

Jeff Greene, assistant executive director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said NBC News“Encryption is your friend, whether it's in text messages or whether you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication. Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it's encrypted, it will make it impossible.”

End-to-end encryption means that a message being sent is encrypted on the sender's device and can only be decrypted by the recipient's device. Apple's iMessage has end-to-end encryption – but only if you're communicating with another Apple user. The same goes for Android texts. Messages sent between Apple and Android devices do not have end-to-end encryption. Global powerhouse WhatsApp is one of the most secure services, according to PC Mag.

According to ABC News, officials “admitted that they can't say for sure that Chinese hackers have been completely excluded from these telecommunications networks,” so if you're not sure that the people you're messaging have the same device as you, it's more good to guarantee privacy. I'm using an app like Signal Private Messenger, Telegram or the aforementioned, WhatsApp.