Now that Congress has shot down rules that would have protected your online privacy, there has never been a better time to take your information security into your own hands. But it can be little bit confusing. Encryption is good yes, but how does it actually work? And is all encryption created equal? For a quick primer on the leading standard for your security, look no further.

This quick primer on end-to-end encryption from Computerphile is sparked by some different political circumstances across the pond, but is nonetheless relevant. As Dr. Mike Pound explains, end-to-end encryption is the strongest form of modern encryption-based messaging, and is the sort you will find in security-conscious apps like Signal. That is, so long as there are no backdoors, because it is impossible to install one—even for law enforcement—without destroying the security of the whole system.

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But don't be fooled into thinking that end-to-end encryption is unimpregnable. As the name implies, this sort of encryption protects data on its way from one end of a journey to the other. Once you get to the end though, all bets are off, and even if the path from your computer to another is completely secured, that doesn't matter if either of the computers on the end are compromised.

Using services with end-to-end encryption is just one of many steps to keeping your data secure, and here in the States another one is to tell your ISP not to sell your data. But ever little bit counts.

Source: Computerphile

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