EncryptionThe encryption debate is heating up

The privacy vs. security debate is heating up. Should messages on private devices be encrypted to protect our privacy? Will this dangerously hamper national and international security efforts? If we go the encryption route, are technologies being implemented fast enough to protect sensitive data from criminals?

The Guardian revealed two weeks ago how a secret U.S. cybersecurity report from the U.S. National Intelligence Council, warned that government and private computers were being left vulnerable to online attacks “because encryption technologies were not being implemented fast enough.”

CORDIS notes that it is not just governments which are concerned. Tech companies have responded to public anxiety over tracking in the wake of the revelations of mass surveillance by upping their game when it comes to encryption. The most common operating systems for phones and tablets now offer encryption by default.

At the same time, however, some governments are pledging to crack down on encryption use by technology companies because they fear that unencrypted data creates a “safe space” for terrorists to communicate with each other.

Science2.0 elaborates on the evolution of Internet security towards today’s encryption debate:

The Internet was not designed with security in mind, and most of the protocols in use — HTTP, Telnet, FTP, SMTP — are clear-text and insecure. Encrypted versions such as HTTPS, SSH, FTPS and authenticated mail — are replacing them by adding a layer of security through Secure Socket Layers (SSL). While not perfect, this is a vast improvement to a system where anyone can intercept a data packet and read (and change) its contents.

As the debate continues between politicians, policymakers, tech companies and citizens, scientists concentrate on researching the possibilities when it comes to encryption. Last month a team of researchers published a study in Nature on a prototype quantum hard drive that may fundamentally alter the realm of secure, long-distance data encryption.

Gizmag reports on how the team from the Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Otago in New Zealand used atoms of the rare-earth element europium embedded in yttrium orthosilicate (YSO) crystals in order to ‘shatter previous records for quantum information retention by creating a storage device capable of holding quantum state information for up to six hours at a time’.

According to Gizmag, this latest research may help enable a worldwide quantum-encrypted communications network “by providing unprecedented storage capabilities and effectively negating the instability problems inherent in currently available technology.” The team also insists, however, that further testing is needed to explore whether their theories match up to the reality.

Whether this method of encryption takes off or not, the conversation on the merits of encrypting our data will go on. According to Science2.0, the “natural step forward” is to encrypt the data where it is stored at each end, rather than only as it is transmitted and the encryption key needed to decode the message only resides with those who have rights to access it.

Whatever the sentiments are politically, Science2.0 insists that the technical case for switching off encryption is “simply a non-starter.” “In fact,” it adds, “we are moving in the opposite direction, replacing the old, open Internet with one that incorporates security by design. If you wish to switch off encryption, it will unpick the stitching that holds the Internet together.”

— Read more in Manjin Zhong et al., “Optically addressable nuclear spins in a solid with a six-hour coherence time,” Nature 517 (8 January 2015): 177-80 (doi:10.1038/nature14025); Colin Jeffrey, “Scientists create prototype quantum hard drive,” Gizmag (12 January 2015); and “Technological Naïvete: Shut Off Internet Encryption And You Might As Well Shut Off The Internet,” Science 2.0 (15 January 2015)