Stay secure with the latest encryption news, trends, and best practices in information security. Protect your data with cutting-edge cryptography.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
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.
New Zealand-based cybersecurity firm Emsisoft has released a free decryption tool to help AstraLocker and Yashma ransomware victims recover their files without paying a ransom. [...]
With the world potentially less than a decade away from breaking current encryption around critical data, researchers weigh in on planning for the post-quantum world.
'It is possible to implement end-to-end crypto in a way that preserves privacy,' claims UK Home Sec Tech companies could be fined $25 million (£18 million) – or ten percent of their global annual revenue – if they don't build suitable mechanisms to scan for child sex abuse material (CSAM) in end-to-end encrypted messages and an amended UK law is passed.…
RaaS malware devs have been busy bees The Hive group, which has become one of the most prolific ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operators, has significantly changed its malware, including migrating the code to the Rust programming language and using a more complex encryption technique.…
The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has chosen the first set of quantum-resistant encryption algorithms that are designed to "withstand the assault of a future quantum computer." The post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technologies include the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm for general encryption, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+ for digital
Hive is not the first ransomware written in Rust, and follows in the footsteps of BlackCat
The operators of the Hive ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) scheme have overhauled their file-encrypting software to fully migrate to Rust and adopt a more sophisticated encryption method
Why go through the hassle of demands and decryption when quietly mining is so much easier? The developer of the AstraLocker ransomware code is reportedly ceasing operations and turning attention to the far simpler art and crime of cryptojacking.…
The US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the first group of encryption tools that will become part of its post-quantum cryptographic standard.
NIST pushes ahead with CRYSTALS-KYBER, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, SPHINCS+ algorithms The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recommended four cryptographic algorithms for standardization to ensure data can be protected as quantum computers become more capable of decryption.…
NIST pushes on with CRYSTALS-KYBER, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+ The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recommended four cryptographic algorithms for standardization to ensure data can be protected as quantum computers become more capable of decryption.…
The four algorithms will now become part of NIST’s post-quantum cryptographic standard