This week’s announcement by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) about a massive cyberattack on telecommunications companies such as Verizon and AT&T, makes it clear: encryption is key to keeping communications secure.
Understanding Encryption
Encryption is an important component of digital privacy that allows you to keep your data secure. It protects your information by scrambling the data so that only authorized people can access or read it. A secret code, known as a key, is used to lock and unlock the data. When encrypted, data is converted into a coded format that cannot easily be read or understood without the key. This key could be a password, passphrase, biometrics, or another cryptographic tool. (For guidance on creating strong passwords, check out our article on data safety tips.)
Data being stored on a device, like files on your computer or pictures on your phone, is known as data at rest. This type of data requires different methods of encryption than data that is being sent or received over the Internet or through a network. This actively moving data is called data in transit.
Data is at risk whether it’s at rest or in transit.
End-to-End Encryption
Once your device connects to a network, it’s now communicating with that network by sending and receiving data back and forth. This is data in transit. To keep this data secure, you should seek out end-to-end encryption options.
End-to-end encryption means that the data is encrypted by the sender, stays encrypted while moving across the Internet or other network, and can only be decrypted by the intended recipient once it is received by that device. End-to-end encryption ensures that your communications cannot be read or accessed by hackers, government agencies, or malicious parties who may intercept the data.
Many commercial messaging applications (CMAs) come with encryption built-in. Signal, WhatsApp, and our partners at Element all provide end-to-end encryption for calls and messages. Element also provides added protection and resiliency by enabling far greater control of encryption keys than more well-known CMAs.
End-to-end encryption is also important for email. Protonmail and Tutanota both offer encrypted email services. It’s good to note, however, that messages are only encrypted when emailing someone who is also using the same secure email service.
Secure Communications Solutions
As a technology integrator and secure communications solutions provider, Ridgeline has been helping enterprise customers secure their data and protect their communications from adversaries for more than nine years.
Attacks like the Salt Typhoon campaign will continue to be a threat to US telecommunications systems. While we can’t control the actions of our adversaries, we can proactively defend our communications. For government agencies and organizations with sensitive operations, using secure platforms like Ridgeline’s Waypoint mobility solution, or the Element secure CMA reduces the impact of hacks and data breaches like the one reported this week.