Privacy Messaging with Secure And Encrypted Messengers
Encryption technology is the reason why your chat with someone cannot be read by other parties. Without this encryption technology, your chats and personal information could be widely spread anywhere.
This technology has a vital role in cyber security. Its function as the main wall in data protection is, of course, there are many cybercrime activities that try to destroy and obtain data illegally, such as brute force attacks.
Knowing What’s An Encryption
Encryption is a process of scrambling data so that later the data can only be understood by certain people. Technically this technology is a process for converting plaintext (text that humans can understand) to ciphertext (humans can’t understand).
Scrambling data through this technology is not completely random. In the process, this technology uses a cryptographic key which is a character string, to an encryption algorithm that can later turn it into random data.
The cryptographic key contains a set of mathematical values that have been agreed upon by the sender and recipient of the encrypted message. This is what causes data to be locked (encrypted) but can still be opened (decrypted) by certain parties.
The Benefits
This encryption technology has many benefits for its use. Some of the benefits that you may know are as follows:
Maintain user privacy
The way this technology works is by scrambling data so that it cannot be understood by other people. This has a goal
so that the privacy of data users can be maintained. Data that has been encrypted, of course, problems around
privacy leaks will be more preventable.
Provides application protection for conversational channels
Imagine when everyone can read your private chat with someone. Not only can you lose privacy, but you can lose personal data. So this encryption technology is a vital security component for conversation applications like WhatsApp so that privacy is better maintained.
Digital signatures
Not only useful for maintaining privacy and security, this technology can be used as a digital signature. A digital signature is a statement line in an e-copy, such as an email containing an encrypted statement. So only certain people can understand this statement through the description.
Interestingly enough, you can always apply encrypted protection to your device simply by using a VPN. Yes, aside from making your personal location hidden, VPNs can also offer better protection through encrypted connections. Simply by buying VPN you are adding extra privacy layer, which is certainly useful in the long run. Remember to only buy reputable ones that can give you much better protection features than the others.
The End-to-End Encryption
Are you an Android or iOS user using the WhatsApp application for a conversation? This application often shows an ‘end-to-end encrypted’ notification. This technology is considered to maintain the security and privacy of users. Then, what exactly is ‘end-to-end encryption’ technology?
End-to-end encryption is a technology that can secure text, image, sound, or video messages where only the recipient can access the message. End-to-end encrypted means all your messages are secured and can only be accessed by the intended recipient.
One of the companies using encryption services is WhatsApp which was developed by Brian Acton and Jan Koum in 2009 and acquired by Facebook in 2014. In the same year, Open Whisper Systems announced a partnership with WhatsApp to provide encryption.
After various developments, finally, in 2016, end-to-end encryption is here for every form of communication on WhatsApp.
Until now, this encryption technology has begun to be widely used in various applications such as:
- Facebook Messenger
- Skype,
- Telegram
- Zoom.
How Does It Work
According to Prontomail, the end-to-end encryption process works by encrypting messages and converting messages into random characters or ciphertext. In addition, each user has a Public Key and a Private Key.
As a simple illustration, for example, there are two people named Bob and Alice. One time, Bob wanted to greet and send a message to Alice through an application that has end-to-end encryption.
Alice here has two keys: Public and Private The public one is used to communicate with others, while the private one is only limited to Alice alone.
When sending messages, Bob uses Alice’s public key to encrypt the messages sent. The encrypted message is then converted into ciphertext so that it is difficult to read.
The sent ciphertext has high security so that it cannot be accessed or read by any party, including application providers.
The destination of this message is to Alice’s account, and this message can only be read by Alice through her private key.
When the message goes to the incoming contact, the private key will help to read or describe the message sent. The same process will occur if Alice wants to reply to a message from Bob.
This process roughly occurs in the WhatsApp application. Through its official page, WhatsApp explains that messages sent between users are properly encrypted.
WhatsApp ensures that only you and the people you communicate with can read what’s sent, and no one in between, not even WhatsApp. So, the message is secured and only the recipient and you have the special key required to open and read it.