Encryption 

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Latest news on encryption, covering end-to-end encryption, cryptography, encrypted messaging, encrypt and decrypt tools, decryption, ciphers (also spelt cyphers), PGP (pretty good privacy), public key and private key cryptography, symmetric key and asymmetric key methods, digital signatures, plaintext, cryptanalysis, post-quantum cryptography and the legacy of Claude Shannon.

Encryption is the process of converting information into a code so that only people with the right key can read it. Plaintext is turned into ciphertext by a cipher, and decryption reverses the process. Symmetric key methods use one shared key, while asymmetric key methods use a public key and a private key, which also makes digital signatures possible. Superencryption, or superencipherment, means encrypting data that has already been encrypted.

Governments and technology companies continue to dispute end-to-end encryption, which keeps messages readable only to the sender and the recipient. In February 2025 it was reported that the UK Home Office had served Apple with a technical capability notice under the Investigatory Powers Act concerning encrypted iCloud data. Apple stopped offering Advanced Data Protection to new UK users and challenged the order before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. In August 2024 the US standards body NIST published its first post-quantum cryptography standards, designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers.

Everyday encryption includes HTTPS on websites, encrypted messaging apps, device encryption on phones and laptops, VPNs and password managers. AES, which NIST selected in 2001 to replace the older DES standard, is widely used, while PGP and its open OpenPGP standard secure email and files. Weak keys or poor key handling can defeat a strong algorithm, so security teams manage keys, certificates and updates carefully.

Cryptographers, privacy campaigners and many technology firms argue that deliberate weaknesses or backdoors make everyone less secure. Police and intelligence agencies say that strong encryption can hinder investigations into serious crime. The dispute, often called the crypto wars, has run for decades: PGP's creator Phil Zimmermann was investigated in the US over export controls from 1993, and the case was closed in 1996 without charges.

Simple ciphers such as the Caesar cipher are more than two thousand years old, and in the Second World War Germany used the Enigma machine, whose messages were read by Polish and then British codebreakers at Bletchley Park. Claude Shannon's 1949 paper on secrecy systems showed that only a one-time pad is theoretically unbreakable. Diffie and Hellman published public key agreement in 1976 and RSA followed, although GCHQ had discovered similar ideas earlier and declassified them in 1997. Phil Zimmermann released PGP in 1991, and AES was announced in November 2001.

Encryption protects banking, messaging and the data held by governments, so its rules and weaknesses matter to everyone. Our NewsNow encryption news feed brings together the latest headlines on encryption, cryptography, PGP, post-quantum security and the debates around them from reliable sources worldwide, so you have a comprehensive, up-to-date view.