end-to-end encryption

end-to-end encryption and its importance

Hello, this article will focus on end-to-end encryption. I will briefly explain what it is, why you should use it, and how to use end-to-end encryption to send your data.

Lets start with some basics:

End-to-end encryption means that data (including communications data) is encrypted at your end, and decrypted only at the intended recipient’s end. The important point is that no ‘middle man’ who can access your unencrypted data is involved. Because a middle man can always be regarded as suspect, end-to-end-encryption should be seen as an absolute must if you care about security.

A case in point is Microsoft, who while they encrypt all emails and files held in SkyDrive, also hold the encryption keys, and used these to unlock the emails and files of its 250 million worldwide users for inspection by the NSA. 

Basically, services that encrypt your data on their servers, rather than you encrypting your own data on your own machine, should be strongly avoided.

The terrifying scale of the NSA’s attack on public cryptography and its deliberate weakening of common international encryption standards has demonstrated that no proprietary software can be trusted; even software specifically designed with security in mind. It is now a proven fact that the NSA has co-opted or coerced hundreds of technology companies into building backdoors into their programs, or otherwise weakening security in order to allow the NSA access. US and UK companies are particularly suspect, although the reports make it clear that company’s across the world have acceded to NSA demands.

The problem with proprietary software is not just that as sole developers and owners, companies can be fairly easily approached and convinced to play ball with the NSA, but that their source code is kept secret, making it easy to add to or modify in dodgy ways without anyone noticing.

The best answer to this problem is to use free open source software (FOSS). Often jointly developed by disparate and otherwise unconnected individuals, the source code is available to everyone to examine and peer-review, thereby minimizing the chances that it has been tampered with. Ideally this code should also be compatible other implementations, in order to minimize the possibility of a back-door being built in.

It is of course possible that NSA agents have infiltrated open source development groups and introduced malicious code without anyone’s knowledge, and the sheer amount of code that many projects involve means that it is often almost impossible to fully peer-review all of it.

Still, despite these potential pitfalls, FOSS remains the most reliable and least likely to be tampered with software available, and if you truly care about privacy you should try to use it exclusively (up to and including using FOSS Operating Systems such as Linux).

On this Article I tell you how to obtain and use PGP to encrypt your files LINK

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Really soon, I will update with another news article, a onion website review, some downloads, good tips, etc. you will need to pass by again to see what changed.

Stay tuned I will upload something new very soon, thanks.