Encryption > What is Encryption

What is Encryption

Encryption is the process of scrambling or enciphering data so it can be read only by someone with the means to return it to its original state. It is a crucial feature of a safe and trustworthy Internet. It helps provide data security for sensitive information.

Encryption is commonly used to protect data stored on computer systems and data transmitted via computer networks, including the Internet. Financial transactions and private messaging communications often use encryption to increase security. Encryption is important when we need to find out whether data has been tampered with (data integrity), to increase people’s confidence that they are communicating with the people they think are communicating with (authentication) and to be sure that messages were sent and received (non-repudiation).

How Encryption Works

For data communicated over a network, modern encryption scrambles data using a secret value or key known only by the recipient and the sender. For stored data, the secret value is typically known only by the data owner. There are different types of encryption and the best systems balance safety and efficiency.

End-to-end encryption is any form of encryption in which only the sender and intended recipient can read the message. No third party, even the party providing the communication service, has knowledge of the encryption key. End-to-end encryption is the most secure form of encryption that you can use.

To find out more about how encryption works, take a look at our visual explainer or read our encryption factsheet.

To learn more, sign up for the Internet Society Encryption training course, available in English, French and Spanish.

When do I Use Encryption?

Here are just a few of the places where you likely use encryption in your everyday life:

Web browsing

Browsers and websites use HTTPS, an encrypted protocol, to provide secure communications, keeping our data from being read by bad actors while in transit.

a hand putting credit card on a card reader

E-commerce

We trust companies to protect our financial information when we buy things online or use online banking. Encryption is an important method of doing that.

Secure messaging

When we use a messaging app, we expect the messages to be private. Some messaging apps use encryption to maintain the privacy and security of their users’ communications while it is in transit. Others even use end-to-end encryption, so only the sender and receiver can read the messages.

To understand how you can use encryption to protect yourself, take a look at our guide.

Why Encryption Matters

Encryption safeguards the personal security of billions of people and the national security of countries around the world. Here’s why encryption is vital:

Personal security

Encryption is more important than ever as Internet-based crime is one of the fastest growing security threats. End-to-end encryption, the most secure form of encryption, ensures that sensitive, confidential information transmitted by billions of people online every day remains confidential and out of the hands of criminals.

National security

End-to-end encryption helps prevent spies, terrorists, and hostile governments from accessing and exploiting confidential communications of government officials, and penetrating computer systems and databases that could cause wide-scale, systemic disruptions to economies, infrastructure, and security.

End-to-end encryption also protects the private, confidential communications of law enforcement, military personnel, government officials overseeing classified operations, and emergency responders.

Encryption also protects highly sensitive systems intrinsically tied to national security, including systems that power the electrical grid, databases containing confidential data on citizens, and databases of financial institutions critical to the economic stability of sovereign nations.

Threats to Encryption

Encryption is a system. If part of the system is weakened, so is the system as a whole. Some people want to weaken encryption. Here’s why that’s a bad idea:

Some organizations are pushing to weaken encryption as a means to fight crime. >>>

This not only undermines efforts to prevent crime but create a dangerous precedent that compromises the personal security of billions of people and the national security of countries around the world.

Some organizations argue that law enforcement should be given dangerous authority, requiring companies to create an encryption “backdoor” to fight crime. >>>

This would permit so-called “backdoor access” to confidential, encrypted data on their systems or services. Authorizing “backdoor access” would have dangerous, unintended consequences that would undermine efforts to prevent crime by exposing the personal and confidential information of billions of people, and creating new, dangerous points of access for criminals and hostile actors to exploit.

Backdoor access is often misleadingly referred to as ‘exceptional access.’ There is nothing exceptional about backdoor access. >>>

If any access mechanism exists, it will be vulnerable to exploitation by both law enforcement and bad actors. Weakening encryption by creating “backdoor access” to prevent crime, is like trying to solve one problem by creating 1,000 more — and it establishes a dangerous precedent that could weaken encryption globally. This is because encryption backdoors can be opened by anyone who finds them — including criminals, terrorist organizations, and other hostile actors.

Learn more about backdoor access and the threats to encryption

What Are the Consequences of Weakened Encryption?

Efforts to weaken encryption in one place weaken it everywhere, for everyone. Weakened encryption threatens the security, stability, and safety of people and nations everywhere. Here’s why:

Personal security:

Encryption backdoors can be opened by anyone who finds them, including cyber criminals — who will work overtime to find and exploit them — with devastating consequences for the personal security of billions of people, including:

– Compromised personal privacy and security: End-to-end encrypted communications protect the identity of journalists, activists, protected witnesses, undercover police, and many others who rely on secure and confidential communications. Vulnerable communications put these people at risk.

– Putting vulnerable populations at risk: End-to-end encryption has helped protect vulnerable individuals, including victims of abuse and LGBTQ+ people who use encryption to communicate confidentially and to seek help without fear of retribution. Victim advocates use encryption to confidentially discuss relocation plans with survivors of domestic abuse.

– Jeopardizing banking and financial information: By weakening encryption, personal banking information, credit card data, and other sensitive financial information is easier for cyber criminals to access and exploit.

– Compromising the private identities of billions of people: Weakening encryption exposes information like health records, personal identification data, and other important data that makes it easier for cyber criminals to steal the identities of billions of people.

National security:

Encryption backdoors could create new opportunities for bad actors, including hostile governments, terrorist organizations, and international crime rings, to access and exploit government officials’ confidential communications, and penetrate and attack confidential computer systems and databases. This could cause wide-scale, systemic disruptions to economies, infrastructure, and national security including:

– Compromising government data: Government breaches are frequent, such as the colossal breaches at the United States Office of Personnel Management, the Indian government’s Aadhaar database, and the sensitive information of European Union elected officials. Authorities aren’t able to keep encryption backdoors safe from hackers and criminals, putting confidential data and critical infrastructure like banks and the power grid at risk.

– Undermining financial and economic security: By making personal information and bank data less secure, encryption backdoors could unintentionally facilitate identity theft and financial fraud with devastating consequences for individuals, businesses, and the nation’s economic stability.

– Jeopardizing life-sustaining infrastructure: Introducing vulnerabilities into critical infrastructure systems like electrical power grids via the secure communications systems used by its operators could allow bad actors to hijack the grid and deny power to thousands, leading to widespread public fear, economic harm, physical injury, and even deaths. Other critical public services that rely on encryption to keep citizens safe include elections, hospitals, and transportation.

– Compromising military operations: Encryption supports important government entities that rely on encryption to safeguard nation states.

The most effective way to ensure the personal security of billions of people and the security of nations around the world is to not only continue preserving uncompromised, end-to-end encryption practices, but also by adopting and bolstering strong encryption policies.

Read our policy framework for an open and trusted Internet

What Would Your Life Look Like Without Encryption?

What do you want to keep private in your life? From your finances to your photos, there are countless areas of your life you likely want to keep safe and secure. Without encryption, private messages, financial data, photos and videos – and so much more – would be at risk. Criminals could easily access your financial information, impersonate you online, or blackmail you using your personal data. A world with encryption is a safer world. From when you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed at night, encryption helps protect what matters.

Read Your Day with Encryption to learn more

Who Needs to Use Encryption?

Encryption is for everybody. If you want to keep your data private and secure, encryption is important for you. Let’s take a look at some of the specific groups for whom encryption is particularly important.

Encryption for Journalists

For some communities, like journalists, encryption is crucial for keeping people safe and ensuring a healthy freedom of the press. Encryption is essential for protecting freedom of expression and privacy.

Read our factsheet on How Encryption can Protect Journalists and the Free Press.

Encryption for LGBTQ+ people

A safe, secure Internet helps the LGBTQ+ community live their truth without fear of persecution while protecting their privacy. Strong encryption is a critical part of that equation.

Read our factsheet on Why Encryption is Essential for the LGBTQ+ Community.

Encryption for Young People

Heading to a protest or just worried about snooping siblings? Here are the three essential steps young people need for encryption safety.

Read our factsheet for Youth by Youth: 3 Ways to ACT.

If you’re a parent or carer, find out why encryption is an important part of keeping children safe online.

See all encryption resources