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Background for this topic.
Encryption transforms readable data into ciphertext using an algorithm and a key, so someone who obtains the ciphertext cannot normally understand it without the required key. It protects confidentiality for data in transit, such as traffic between services, and at rest, such as files, databases, and backups. Encryption does not by itself prove who sent data, prevent tampering, or protect plaintext displayed on a compromised endpoint.
Its security therefore depends on implementation and key management. Attackers may target stolen, exposed, or overprivileged keys, weak algorithms or protocols, poor randomness, and systems that decrypt data unnecessarily. Use modern, authenticated encryption where appropriate; protect keys separately from encrypted data with tightly limited access, rotation and revocation procedures, and monitored use. Verify that encryption covers relevant backups and internal service links, while recognizing that lost keys can make recovery impossible and that encrypted traffic may still reveal metadata such as timing or endpoints.
Microsoft has shared a temporary fix for a known issue preventing Microsoft 365 customers from replying to encrypted emails using the Outlook Desktop client. [...]
Key management is more complex than ever. Your choices are: Rely on your cloud provider or manage keys locally; Encrypt only the most critical data; Or encrypt everything.
But breaking E2EE and blanket bans aren't thinking at all Opinion If your cranky uncle was this fixated about anything, you'd always be somewhere else at Christmas. Yet here we are again. Europol has been sounding off at Meta for harming children. Not for the way it's actually harming children, but because – repeat after me – end-to-end encryption is hiding child sexual abuse material from the eyes of the law. "E2EE = CSAM" is the new slogan of fear.…
PLUS: More data leaks at the US Patent Office; LockBit still tough enough for Wichita; and some critical vulnerabilities in brief Encrypted email service Proton Mail is in hot water again, and for the same thing that earned it flack before: handing user data over to law enforcement. …