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Even before the pandemic, digital communication was the norm via phone, text, email, and a plethora of messaging services. Now, with the pandemic transforming how we work, digital communication has cemented its position in workplaces globally.

Platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet have become commonplace while more mature platforms like Whatsapp and Skype have expanded their user base.

However, in an age of data privacy, digital communication channels present a security risk. Every time a message is sent it could be seen by people other than the recipient. These range from criminals and malicious elements to governments and the companies that provide the services.

As such, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) has become a major selling point for messaging services to guarantee security and protection. However, its use has its controversies governments have pushed back against it amid claims it prevents legal authorities gathering evidence.

In fact, Austrian TV network ORF recently revealed a draft EU resolution aimed at limiting the use of E2EE.

Encryption is a necessary means of protecting fundamental rights and the digital security of governments, industry and society. At the same time, the European Union needs to ensure the ability of competent authorities in the area of security and criminal justice, e.g. law enforcement and judicial authorities, to exercise their lawful powers, both online and offline, the draft said.

Given that the EU has one of the worlds most privacy-friendly regimes, the move against E2EE is significant development. Furthermore, the use and advocacy of E2EE by tech giants is part of a larger conflict between the companies and authorities across the West.

End-to-end encryption is a method to ensure that any digital communications remain between the sender and the recipient no third parties can read it, including the server that facilitates the transmission.

Data is encrypted at the point of origin and decrypted at the end point, and only those two parties have the keys to do so. Anyone able to intercept the message would receive only encrypted data, and at present there is no reliable way to guess or decrypt the information without the key.

E2EE does have limitations, however. It does not hide message metadata, such as the time the message was sent and who it was sent to.

It also only protects the message in transit once the message reaches its endpoint, it is still vulnerable to attack and needs to be covered by other security measures.

Whatsapp introduced E2EE in 2016 while Facebook Messenger offers it as a separate service, with plans to roll it out as standard.

Google recently began testing end-to-end encryption on its Messages service across one-to-one conversations. Similarly, Zoom began technical previews of E2EE in October, with feedback determining whether it will expand its use.

Perhaps ironically, the cases both for and against end-to-end encryption focus on crime. As a secure form of encryption, E2EE stops messages from being intercepted mid-transit. And although other encryption methods may prevent cybercriminals from eavesdropping on messages, what E2EE offers exclusively is keeping the service providers from accessing the messages.

This protects the sender and recipient from criminals who have managed to access the servers systems, or potentially from rogue actors within the organisation itself.

It also guards against legitimate, if unwanted, use by organisations; such as the storage and analysis of personal data for commercial purposes.

For companies that deal with confidential and sensitive information such as health data, for example, having verifiable privacy credentials is vital. Using messaging services with E2EE helps ensure the integrity of the data.

That said, every company uses and produces sensitive information financial data, customer data, information about job listings and redundancies. In many cases, there is a legal mandate to ensure that this information remains private.

As such, E2EE has a valid use case in maintaining compliance with data protection legislation. This is especially important in the age of GDPR, when a data breach can potentially put a company out of business.

However, the appeal offered by E2EE means that some companies have been falsely claiming to offer it. Zoom was taken to court in America earlier this year claims it exaggerated the level of encryption it offers.

Opponents of end-to-end encryption claim that it enables criminal activity, including child abuse and terrorism. It is telling that the recent EU draft proposals come in the wake of a series of terror attacks in France and Austria.

In additon, it was revealed that Facebook is behind the vast majority of reported online child abuse images. The UKs National Crime Agency has warned that if Facebook rolls out E2EE, this could effectively reduce that number to zero, allowing the perpetrators to operate undetected and unhindered.

Despite this, Facebook has not said that it will delay or rethink plans to rollout E2EE.

This takes place against the background of a larger conflict between tech companies that has been playing out across the US and EU. In the US, for example, Apple and the FBI have been involved in a lengthy dispute over whether US courts can compel the company to unlock cell phones to provide evidence.

On a practical level, there are cases where E2EE is undesirable. Weaker forms of encryption that share unencrypted data with the server, increase the range of services the platform can offer. This includes storing message history and connecting additional participants using alternative channels into a conversation (useful for group calls).

Ironically, for a protocol designed to prevent cyberattacks, E2EE can actually interfere with cybersecurity operations by making it impossible to detect threats contained in messages, or to analyse them for potential data breaches.

As 2020 draws to a close, hope that 2021 will see an end to the pandemic is growing. However, new ways of working, such as the use of digital technology and flexible conditions, are likely here to stay.

That unfortunately means that the rise in cyberattacks over the pandemic is unlikely to ebb. As such, ensuring adequate data protection will be vital over the next few years, with E2EE providing one of the most secure standards available.

While its future may well be in question, it is undoubtedly wiser to take precautions now than risk a potential breach waiting for the authorities to decide its fate. And although both sides of the argument present compelling arguments, they have been deadlocked for years.

The future of encryption will be a key area of discussion at the upcoming Data Protection Virtual Summit on 10th December.

Hear from leading experts from across the data protection landscape and explore the crucial issues facing frontline practitioners.

Register your free place now at https://www.dataprotection-summit.com/

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Data Protection | The Pros and Cons of End-to-End Encryption - DIGIT.FYI

The Global Encryption Software Market will be analyzed on the basis of key market vendors, their product benchmarking, SWOT analysis, and companys financial data such as annual revenue, research and development expenses, and net income, and their geographical presence. The key vendors in the Global Encryption Software Market include Dell, Eset, Gemalto, IBM, Mcafee, Microsoft, Pkware, Sophos, Symantec, Thales E-Security, Trend Micro, Cryptomathic, Stormshield. These vendors are actively involved in the organic and inorganic strategies to increase their market share and expand their geographical presence. Organic growth strategies include product launches, geographical expansion, R&D expenses, and organization restructuring. Inorganic growth strategies include merger & acquisition, partnership, and strategic collaboration.

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Encryption Software Market to Witness Astonishing Growth by 2027 | Dell , Eset , Gemalto and more - Cheshire Media

Part of the reason why people end up trusting messaging services such as WhatsApp in spite of the fact that it is owned by Facebook, a company that isnt well known for caring about things like the privacy of its users, is because of the fact that it has end to end encryption. WhatsApp competitors such as Signal also offer this kind of encryption, and as a result of the fact that this is the case you can rest assured that nobody would ever be able to read the messages that you send since they would be encrypted in a highly untraceable manner.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that European legislators appear to be trying to work towards getting rid of this encryption, or at the very least making it so that they would have a means of cracking through it if they need to investigate someone or the other. A big part of the reason what that is the case has to do with the fact that the continent has seen a surge in terrorist attacks recently with eight people having been killed by terrorists in three separate countries in the past couple of months alone.

While it is understandable that a government that is facing a terrorism crisis would want to eliminate any potential channels of communications that would allow terrorists to communicate privately and secretly, at the same time a lot of people are criticizing this as an assault on user privacy. User privacy is the sort of thing that has ended up becoming rather sacred as the internet has become an intrinsic part of our day to day lives, and a government trying to compromise it will never be seen as a good thing.

Some are also criticizing this as an attempt to make it easier for governments to conduct surveillance on whoever they choose, something that a lot of people are weary of since it is a pretty slippery slope that can lead to a lot of terrible situations.

Read next:Google is planning to enforce upgraded privacy standards for Chrome extensions soon

Excerpt from:
European Legislators Move to Eliminate End-to-End Encryption in Messaging Services Following Terror Attacks - Digital Information World

Recent years have seen a step-change in French government operations. An unprecedented modernisation agenda has created new ways of working for officials and civil servants alike.

As part of a drive for more efficient and effective collaboration, the Interdepartmental Digital Directorate (DINUM) set out in late 2017 to develop a secure messaging service for members of the government to communicate safely.

Mainstream messaging applications, such as Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, were not deemed suitable for a government-wide messaging solution. These centralised, proprietary apps would keep French government data within their own systems.

They offer little transparency, says Jrme Ploquin, project director at the State Digital Directorate, Prime Ministers Services.

We didnt know about what backdoors might be in place. We couldnt be sure about the quality of the end-to-end encryption, nor audit the solutions. Data would be off our own servers, and probably out of the country. The Patriot Act creates ambiguity, and the providers business models were not suitable for government use. We saw them as consumer-grade solutions.

DINUM, in partnership with Frances National Agency for Information System Security (ANSSI), scoured the world for potential solutions. Ownership and digital sovereignty topped the list of daunting selection criteria. Confidentiality and security were also critical, as was usability for a system that would be used by the countrys highest officials and hundreds of thousands of civil servants. For a system that would need to scale across Frances entire civil service and eventually its respective ecosystems, it also had to be open, interoperable and support a huge number of users.

Although DINUM wasnt looking for an open source solution specifically, it discovered Matrix; a decentralised communication protocol developed with interoperability and privacy in mind. Element, whose founders also lead the open source Matrix project, helped DINUM deploy the Matrix-based Tchap solution.

Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralised communication. It is the foundation for a completely different approach to real time collaboration.

Being decentralised enables people and organisations to host their own conversations; keeping data within their control (via on-premise hardware, private cloud, or cloud provider) rather than being stored by the service provider. That instantly delivered Tchaps need for ownership and data sovereignty.

An open protocol, Matrix-based systems interoperate seamlessly. That gave Tchap the ability to federate across every organisation within the French public sector. Each organisation can simply be added to the solution, and instantly be able to easily communicate and collaborate with other departments. Scalability and interoperability were clearly addressed by Matrix.

Matrix also supports genuine end-to-end encryption meaning that messages can only be decrypted by the people participating in the conversation based on the Double Ratchet Algorithm, open sourced, and subject to cryptographic review by NCC Group. That gave Tchap the assurances it was looking for around security.

Despite Matrix being a relatively new protocol, it was technically advanced and had a large, active open source community. It was proven, and really quite mature, says Ploquin.

The flagship client app, Element, was still very new and we decided to use that as a base for our client app across Android, iOS and web, explains Ploquin.

We wanted to reflect the French governments colours in the user interface and simplify some aspects to tailor it for widespread use across a collection of organisations with potentially over five million people. We also wanted an antivirus to protect against external threats.

Tchap Agent went live in April 2019 and was rolled out across all ministries. By March 2020 Tchap had around 80,000 daily active users, making it one of the worlds largest deployments of a collaboration tool; the sheer size of the user base reflecting just how many different organisations the Matrix-based solution was able to support.

Within weeks, the user base doubled to 160,000 as the coronavirus pandemic saw the vast majority of Frances civil service switch to home-based working. Tchap scaled easily, and enabled Frances public sector to adjust quickly to an unprecedented new normal.

Tchap is an excellent example of what we describe as universal secure collaboration, explains Elements co-founder and chief operating officer, Amandine Le Pape.

Universal means that it is open, and therefore easy to federate across different organisations. Any Matrix-based client is instantly interoperable with it, and it can also be bridged into other open protocols like IRC, or into proprietary systems such as Slack.

It takes a completely different approach to the vast majority of messaging and collaboration; self-hosting data, decentralisation, end-to-end encryption and cross-signing to verify participants as well as supporting the usual protections such as anti-virus.

And, more than just a messenger, it is a complete collaboration tool that allows secure file sharing, screen sharing and all types of possibilities around integrations and connectivity.

Tchap has enjoyed positive feedback as it has rolled out across the public sector, with over 80 per cent of users saying it has delivered big benefits. Like any project, particularly for a public one of this size, there have been twists and turns, says Ploquin. We had teething troubles, a security scare, and the inevitable changes in requirements.

We also scaled from 80,000 to 160,000 daily active users almost overnight, and have seen people adopt and adapt Tchap in the most delightful of ways. Human beings are at their best when they communicate, and Tchap allows them to do that in new and previously unthinkable ways.

The G7 in Biarritz, for example, in August 2019, was an early demonstration of Tchap being used to manage a high-security event. It is now routine for the emergency services to coordinate through Tchap to ensure more effective working in response situations.

The impact of Tchap bringing together communities of people with shared goals is perhaps the most satisfying thing for Ploquin:

Were seeing people from a wide range of organisations participate in rooms dedicated to particular topics; from our ambassadors in Africa coordinating their response to the pandemic, to best practice discussions around challenges such as cybercrime. People are proactively sharing their knowledge, helping everyone to improve what they do.

Tchaps rollout continues, with the current focus on the regions, and Frances principalities. That will take Tchaps user base to around 300,000 people, although there is little to stop the system being adopted right across Frances public sector.

Although Tchap is already a huge deployment, in many ways were just getting started. We want to encourage Tchap users to innovate with how they use the platform. From hospitals to education, we imagine enabling all sorts of new uses as people better understand the power and flexibility that Tchap offers.

Read the original here:
Inside the French governments mission to develop an encrypted messaging platform - NS Tech