Faced with the threats of cybercrime, the respect of our private lives and the confidentiality of our data are constantly put at peril. IT software editors don’t stop stopping developing their ever more secure tools and solutions in order to protect your data from eventual attacks.
Over the past few years, end to end encryption has appeared. Used more and more, it is more effective than traditional encryption systems for securing your files and conversations.
Discover what it is, how it works and what the interest is for your projects?
What is end to end encryption?
Sometimes known as E2EE, end to end encryption is the safest encryption method that exists today.
It is a system that protects the content of your messages and all your files (videos, photos, on line conversations, etc.) by making them unreadable to every other person who is not the recipient. Access and service providers are themselves incapable of decoding the conversations and documents that are exchanged.
In this way, end to end encryption guarantees you maximum security. It is designed to withstand any surveillance or falsification attempt, seeing as nobody is in a position to decode the communicated or stored data. Another advantage: businesses that offer end to end encryption service are unable to deliver decoded versions of their clients’ messages to the authorities.
For example, WhatsApp, one of the biggest messaging apps in the world, has used end to end encryption to secure the messages of its users since April 2016. According to WhatsApp, “your WhatsApp messages are protected with a padlock, and only you and the recipient have the special key which allows you to unlock it and read your messages.”
All communication systems do not use end to end encryption (often because they do not support it). The problem is that they cannot guarantee communication protection between their clients and servers. Users should have confidence in the middlemen (the people who manage the servers) with the confidentiality of their messages. End to end encryption is considered as the safest as it reduces the numbers of participators who can intercept, decode or change conversations.
How does it work?
Coded messages have existed since the dawn of time. In times of war as in times of peace, the powerful of this world have always communicated via secret codes to pass on important and confidential information.
In the digital world of today, computers and technology facilitate the task for us by taking care of coding our messages. This is what we call ‘encryption.’ According to Self-Defense Surveillance, ‘encryption is a process that makes a message unreadable, except for one person who would know the ‘decode’ in order to make it legible.’
A traditional encryption system works with a single key to encode and decode a message. Conversely, end to end encryption uses a tool called cryptography by public key, which means it uses two key: one to encode and another to decode.
The principal:
- A sender, let’s call him Mark, has a public key which he sends to the receiver of his messages, called Alice
- This public key is going to allow Alice to code the messages she wants to send to Mark. All people who have Mark’s public key are in a position to encode the messages for themselves
- In order to decode Alice’s messages, Mark has the other key, called the private key
- In this way, only Mark and Alice are capable of decoding the messages that they send respectively. The intermediaries, such as the courier services, the internet service providers and the prying eyes on the network can see the messages going, but they are incapable of reading them as they are rendered unreadable by the end to end encryption
Watch out, the private key is very important, and you need to keep it safe, as if you lose it or delete it by accident, you will not be in a position to decode the encoded messages that you receive. If a malicious person gets hold of your private key, they could read your messages and write pretending to be you.
How does it interest your projects?
All companies are led to work on sensitive projects. In this case, ‘sensitive’ means that the information handled should remain confidential. This can mean confidential and strategic projects, internal or external. For example, the reorganization of a service and the removal of a certain number of positions, the merge or purchase of a company, the development of a new product or strategy change of your business in order to differentiate yourself from the competitors.
Whatever the project, this should stay secret. It is therefore imperative to work with secure tools and software, which will be capable of protecting your conversation, your files and all of your data against different threats such as leaks or falsification of data, theft of passwords, computers or hosting equipment or intrusion.
End to end encryption brings to main advantages:
- your data is protected against hacking or theft: even if a malevolent person succeeds in entering your system or stealing one of your devices, your data will remain unreadable.
- you have control over who is authorised to read your messages and files
Conclusion
Nowadays, end to end encryption or cyphering is one of the most effective solutions for protecting your data.
For maximum security, equip your company or your group with secure project management software such as Wimi Armoured. This highly protected collaborative platform allows you to effectively collaborate on all your projects, even the most sensitive. Wimi Armoured uses unique technologies to encode the information of your projects, whatever the level of confidentiality. Your exchanges are protected, your data is encoded and using the solution is very simple.
As well as end to end encryption, Wimi Armoured has a number of security advantages like hosting your data in France and enhanced authentication. Specific measures are put in place to preserve the confidentiality of your data and protect it from the threats of cybercrime.
