Encryption is one of the most important technologies of our time and one of the most controversial.
Surely you've already heard about encryption. In spite of being able to not know very well what it is or how it works, even, you even use applications or encrypted software without worrying much about it. Encryption, an issue increasingly mediated by association with terrorism problems, is something much broader and more important than can be judged.
It is the encryption that guarantees privacy, even if you feel that nobody takes the trouble to read our messages and files.
It keeps our conversations, files and personal information not only beyond the reach of large companies and government agencies, but also to criminals or simply friends, family or co-workers. Actually, when we talk about encryption we do not necessarily have to be talking about the massive surveillance of the NSA. We can only be talking about personal data, documents, photos, passwords etc that can be stolen through viruses and then used for schemes of extortion or fraud. We can also be talking about the times when we leave the computer or mobile phone in the middle of the office or the house with an improper appearance that, although innocent, can cause embarrassing situations.
If we exchange emails through an encryption service such as protonmail, nobody but us and the recipient will be able to access the content of our messages, Gmail, our email is read by Google so that the adjustment of the ads that It shows us in several places. The use of chat services such as WhatsApp, guarantees that communications are between us and are not decoded by the servers of these companies - contrary to what happens in Messenger, in which our messages are also used to sell advertising. Sites that use HTTPS and not the basic HTTP protocol should also be privileged, since this extra "S" is a sign that all of its content is legitimate, having not been altered in any way between the site's server and our computer.
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What is encryption?
Encryption is the process of converting a form of information that can not be read by an unauthorized person; you need a special key (called HASH) that allows you to decode that information, returning to its original form. There are several methods to encrypt and decrypt the information, which is not worth detailing. Thanks to encryption, companies can protect the secrets of their business, governments can make classified information secure and we can protect personal data of criminals and spies. Weird moments and errors can be avoided if private information is stored in encrypted form.
Prefer the ProtonMail or the Signal or be careful with the HTTPS indication in the browser, are just two ideas for a more encrypted life. You can encrypt your entire computer - in Windows 10, you will find the option "Device Encryption" in the configuration; MacOS, the alternative is the "FileVault". Windows Device Encryption has one limitation - it only encrypts your computer if you log in to your Microsoft account, since it is through it that you can recover the password if you lose it. In Apple's FileVault, all your data will be lost if you forget the password and the recovery key.
In smartphones, encryption is active by default. In iOS, Apple does not allow users to change the encryption settings, but all information is encrypted when the lock ended the iPhone or iPad with the code. In the rival operating system, you will have the option to completely encrypt your Android phone in the configuration and allow all user information to be inaccessible even without a password.
Encrypted messages
The chat applications are probably the most used in day to day and where we exchange more intimate information, including photos and videos. The use of services as an unencrypted messenger, not only have our messages to go through the Facebook servers, as we are, so the risk of our conversations being intercepted between the sender and receiver. This interference can occur either through sophisticated spy systems, such as through a simple signal from other computers to which we have access.
It is no coincidence that we can only use WhatsApp on one phone at a time and that, when using the web version of the service, we need to authenticate with a specific QR code. Is that all our communications are only on our device and on the other person's device. Among them, the messages circulate encrypted and nobody beyond us can decode them, not the WhatsApp, nor the manufacturer of our mobile phone or operating system, nor a government entity. In addition to WhatsApp, there are other applications that offer the same security and private life that the signal and the telegram are two examples, both have had exposure to the media. The Telegram, like the WhatsApp, was already associated with terrorist attacks.
Messenger, are not encrypted by default, but you can activate this option in certain individual conversations and even set a period of time, from 5 seconds to 1 day, after which the messages are automatically deleted. Encryption Messenger is an exception, in general, the messages exchanged through this application are stored on Facebook servers, but that does not mean that the message is not secure. However, a 100% encrypted application is the only guarantee that we are securely protected.