The Electronic Frontier Foundation considers Google’s addition of a 2G kill switch to Android 12 as a very good development. The digital rights group has been campaigning against the outdated, unsafe 2G cellular standard since 2020, and Android was the first mobile operating system to take the group’s advice and allow its users to disable 2G entirely.
In the US, operators turned off 2G years ago, and now 3G is in question. But the phones are still not on the same line in this regard, the modems in them still continue to look for a 2G station around and connect if there is one. The biggest problem of 2G is that it is a very old technology and not secure. An intervening user can easily listen and decode the messaging between the tower and the phone.
This actually does not pose a problem in terms of security, as 2G towers are no longer used. However, a malicious programmer can set up a mechanism that imitates a 2G signal receiver, allowing nearby phones to connect to him, and from there he can access the contents of the phone.
Now that Android has shut down 2G, the EFF is now focused on Apple phones in its work. The group is currently running a campaign on Twitter and trying to force Apple to turn off the 2G option on its phones.
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