Why is it in the News?

There are several ways to encrypt information depending on the level of secrecy and protection required.

What is End-to-end Encryption (E2EE)?

• End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a type of messaging that keeps messages private from everyone, including the messaging service.
  • When E2EE is used, a message only appears in decrypted form for the person sending the message and the person receiving the message.
  • The sender is one "end" of the conversation and the recipient is the other "end"; hence the name "end-to-end."

How Does Encryption Work?

• Encryption works by altering data so that only someone who possesses a specific piece of knowledge — known as the key — can interpret the data.
• Keys can take different forms in different contexts.
  • With communications over the Internet, a key is a string of bits that plays a role in the complex mathematical equations used to scramble and unscramble data.
• With E2EE, the key that can encrypt and decrypt messages remains saved on a user's device.

What Kind of Encryption Does E2EE Use?

• End-to-end encryption uses a specialized form of encryption called public key encryption (also sometimes called asymmetric encryption).
  • Public key encryption enables two parties to communicate without having to send the secret key over an insecure channel.
• Public key encryption relies on using two keys instead of one: a public key and a private key.
  • While anyone, including the messaging service, can view the public key, only one person knows the private key.
  • Data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key (not the public key).
  • This contrasts with symmetric encryption, where only one key is used to both encrypt and decrypt.

How Does End-to-end Encryption Support Privacy?

• E2EE ensures that no one can see messages except for the two people who are communicating with each other.
• When implemented properly, it does not require users to trust that a service will handle their data properly.
• Thus, E2EE gives people total control over who can read their messages, enabling them to keep their messages private.

What are the Limitations of End-to-end Encryption?

• E2EE keeps messages secure in transit (as they pass from one person to another).
  • But it does not protect messages once they reach their destination.
• E2EE is not guaranteed to be future-proof. When implemented correctly, modern encryption methods are strong enough to resist encryption-breaking efforts from even the most powerful computers in the world.
• But the more powerful in the future like Quantum computers, if developed, would be able to crack modern encryption algorithms.
• Using E2EE keeps messages secure in the present, but it may not keep them secure permanently.