Encrypto lets you encrypt files before sending them to friends or coworkers. Just drop a file into Encrypto, set a password, and then send it however you normally would — but this time with added security. Best of all, it’s free for both Macintosh and Windows. Encrypto takes any file or folder and adds AES-256 encryption to it. With encryption, you know your file is incredibly secure and that only […]
Cryptology expert Bruce Schneier has written a short piece to introduce Enigma’s technique — what cryptographers call “secure multiparty computation.” He gives a brief overview of the technology, written in English that most of us can understand, along with a link to a detailed explanation that is probably best left for reading by mathematicians. Secure multiparty computation may well be the wave of the future for high security computing. Schneier’s […]
According to the 2014 Wiretap Report, released today by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of a total of 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized, with 1,279 authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges. Compared to the applications approved during 2013, the number approved by federal judges decreased 13% in 2014 and the number approved by state judges increased 8%. One state wiretap […]
Two years after the Edward Snowden leaks, millions of people worldwide have adopted encrypted and probably secure methods of using the Internet. The Tor network has doubled in size, Tails has tripled in users, PGP has double the daily adoption rate, but perhaps the most popular secure application is Off The Record, a product that provides encryption for instant messaging conversations. Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging allows you to have private conversations […]
File storage services in the cloud are very popular these days — and for good reasons. Services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, SpiderOak, iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon S3, Box, and numerous others offer free or very low cost file storage space that can be used for any of a number of reasons. Cloud storage serves as an added layer of data protection for your precious and irreplaceable […]
The White House is pushing for greater encryption across all federal sites to help better protect data flowing between a user’s computer and the federal agency. Last week, the US government’s chief information officer Tony Scott announced it will require every federal website to “provide service through a secure connection” by the end of 2016. (See http://goo.gl/atqTzd for details.) Simultaneously, many government agencies, including the White House, are lobbying for […]
Encryption expert Bruce Schneier has written an article that describes the options available for Widows users. He writes, “Encrypting your Windows hard drives is trivially easy; choosing which program to use is annoyingly difficult.” The article describes what is available today to make your Windows system private. If you are still using Windows, you might want to read the article at https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/06/encrypting_wind.html.
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the Electronic Privacy Information Center awards dinner. “So let me be crystal clear: Weakening encryption or taking it away harms good people who are using it for the right reason.” He also said that adding encryption backdoors for law enforcement would weaken the security of all devices and “is incredibly dangerous.” Details may be found at http://www.dailydot.com/politics/tim-cook-encryption-weaking-dangerous-comments.
Before the National Security Agency began complaining about being shut out of encrypted devices, it helped develop software for secure communications that could be adapted by the private sector. The NSA technology was developed for Top Secret Classified Communication and will now be available to the public later this month in the form of a smartphone application called Scrambl3 from a California startup which claims its “dark Internet tunnel” thwarts […]
A recently published U.N. report on encryption technology counters governments’ claims that the tech is detrimental to a safe society. The battle between members of U.S. and some other nations’ law enforcement who stand opposed to strong encryption and those who champion the data-scrambling technology continues. But a new report from the United Nations has weighed in, saying that encryption is crucial for human rights and freedom of speech.
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