What is encryption?

The translation of data into a secret code. Encryption is the most effective way to achieve data security. To read an encrypted file, you must have access to a secret key or password that enables you to decrypt it.

This brings us to this year’s FBI vs Apple tussle. The FBI wanted Apple to create and electronically sign new software that would enable the FBI to unlock a work-issued iphone it recovered from one of the shooters in a terrorist attack. The attackers later died in a shootout with police; the phone was recovered intact, but that phone was locked with a four-digit password and was set to eliminate all its data after ten failed password attempts.

On February 9, 2016, the FBI announced that it was unable to unlock the county-owned phone it recovered, due to its advanced security features, including encryption of user data. As a result, the FBI asked Apple Inc. to create a new version of the phone’s iOS Operating System that could be installed and run in the phone’s radon access memory to disable certain security features that Apple refers to as “GovtOS”. Apple declined, FBI went to court and so on and so forth.

Any way last week (5th April) WhatsApp announced that it was rolling out an end to end encryption to its platform. The company reported that even the company itself would be unable to decrypt users’ communications. Amnesty International and security professionals praised the move; the US Federal Bureau of Investigation criticized it as threatening the work of law enforcement .

Now this was quite a reveal coming hot in the heals of the “FBI vs Apple saga”, but lets look at the advantage of this development. The biggest advantage here is that your communication is protected from unauthorized access. WhatsApp also took a swing at the law enforcement agencies that attempt to subvert this developments and I quote them “Encryption is one of the most important tools governments, companies, and individuals have to promote safety and security in the new digital age. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about encrypted services and the work of law enforcement. While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue states.”

However, whatever side of discussion you lean towards, this encryption thing is here to stay thankfully, so if you haven’t seen some notification in your chats informing you of the encryption, just visit the official WhatsApp page and get yourself an update of the app and you’re good to go!

Today more than a billion people are using WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family all over the world. And now, every single one of those people can talk freely and securely on WhatsApp.

Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp https://blog.whatsapp.com/10000618/end-to-end-encryption