encryption

End-to-end encryption is a great idea and that’s why it’s almost impossible to understand why Instagram removes it. Almost

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In an era where many users may be concerned about their privacy and looking to ensure their conversations are as secure as possible, Meta has made a curious move. On May 8, as planned, instagram removed end-to-end encryption in direct messages. The big question now is no longer how to communicate safely but something deeper: what interest Meta may have in those conversations. And AI leads the first suspicions. In short. Although it may seem contradictory, Meta is a company that has shown some concern about allowing the user to have secure private conversations. WhatsApp has been using end-to-end encryption for years and, although It took longer to arrive than desiredFaceBook and Instagram also implemented it for direct messages years ago. Simply put, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a technology that ensures that only the sender and receiver can read chats. There are applications that implemented it by default (WhatsApp), but on Instagram it wasn’t like that. It is the user who had to activate it and, if done, automatically and transparently for the user, the device blocks the message using a unique key that prevents anyone other than the recipient from accessing the conversation. It’s over. Download your messages. As we say, it has been on their support blog where Meta has confirmed that end-to-end encrypted messages are no longer available on Instagram. Since last May 8, in fact, and if you have a chat that was protected in this way, a message will appear with instructions to download the messages and keep them safe in case you want to do so. Pressure. The end of this security feature has not been accompanied by a reason why Meta abandons this feature, but it is clear that the company has not done it simply for the sake of it. A few weeks ago, when the company’s plans were announced, a Meta spokesperson told Guardian that “very few people were choosing to send end-to-end encrypted messages.” That was the main reason they cited for stopping service, but you don’t have to scratch the surface too hard to find shadier reasons. For example, different police agencies (Interpol, the United Kingdom National Crime Agency or the FBI) ​​have been pressuring FaceBook to grant them access to encrypted messages. Because of course, this technology is very useful for all of us who value privacy, but it also gives wings to those who want to use it for much darker purposes. There are organizations that have criticized the implementation in apps like Instagram because they point out that, although it is useful, if the company does not implement adequate security measures, it can intensify acts of child sexual exploitationterrorism or giving rise to violent extremism. In fact, the UK government has been searching that Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp or iMessage open or end with that end-to-end encryption. And Apple has had a media battle against the FBI for that very reason. The suspicion. But of course, for a company that has been promoting the discourse since 2019 that encryption in its applications was the way to follow to protect users, this movement seems strange and there are already those who point to more practical reasons for Meta than, simply, to please governments. Those reasons are the ability to train AI. Because if there is no encryption, there is nothing hidden. And, although there is no human reading (although it seems increasingly evident that behind the AI there are humans labeling what our video devices and voice see and hear), having access to the conversations of millions of users allows the algorithms to continue training with the aim of offer advertising more personalized (something that Meta has become very aggressive about in recent months) or chatbots that can continue drinking the Internet. It’s not such a crazy theory.. WhatsApp. “Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can go to WhatsApp,” is Meta’s own recommendation and something they said both in statements to The Guardian and on their support page. Because for their communication app they do continue to aggressively push that argument of “express yourself freely with end-to-end encryption”, “show yourself as you are, speak freely” and “no one else has access, not even WhatsApp”. Seeing that the company maintains this encryption on WhatsApp, but not on an Instagram that is increasingly a bazaar, makes the opinion that they withdraw end-to-end encryption based solely on government pressure lose some weight. In any case, as Meta itself says, if you want privacy in your conversations… you will have to go to WhatsApp. Or to any other app with end-to-end encryption. In Xataka | Meta will pay $1.4 billion to Texas for violating the privacy of its users. Used facial recognition without permission

Quantum computers threaten encryption technologies. This is the reason why we do not have to panic

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This month is being very exciting for enthusiasts who follow up the current Quantum computers. Xanadu, a young Canadian company founded in 2016, has announced that Plan to have ready before 2030 A quantum computer of one million photonic ulna with error correction. However, it is not the only company that intends to make this milestone come true. IBM plans to make available to its customers in 2029 ‘Starling’its first large -scale quantum computer endowed with the ability to amend your own mistakes. The main problem facing quantum computers in the field of error correction is noise, understood as the disturbances that can alter the internal state of the cubits and introduce calculation errors. In any case, if finally the correction of errors comes to fruition the prototypes of quantum computers that we have currently will leave behind their status of prototypes and allow us to face really significant problems. And presumably Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. We are facing a worrying challenge Quantum computer experts have known for several years that quantum computers They will end classical cryptography. That moment came in May 2024. A team of researchers from the University of Shanghai (China) led by Professor Wang Chao used a quantum computer D-Wave for I successfully violate the SPN encryption (Substitation-Permutation Network), which is a cryptographic algorithm that is used to encrypt information. This encryption is the cornerstone of, for example, the AES standard (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is used a lot. These scientists published the result of their research in An interesting article entitled “Public Cryptographic Attack Algorithm based on quantum processing with the advantage of D-Wave”. However, this is not all. And it is that in the middle of May several Google researchers They published an entry In the blog dedicated to the security of this American company in which they support a crucial premise: an integer RSA (Rivest – Shamir – Adleman) of 2,048 bits can factor in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than one million cubits. An RSA integer of 2,048 bits can be factor in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than one million cubits Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and the other modern cryptocurrencies use a cryptography technique known as elliptical curve that is more robust, efficient and difficult to break than RSA, but its mathematical foundations are similar to those of the latter encryption algorithm. In fact, according to Google scientists signed by the article that I have mentioned above, if the future quantum computers will cost them less than initially breaking the RSA encryption, the cryptography of elliptical curve will also fall with relative ease. So far we have talked about cryptocurrencies, but it is crucial that we do not overlook that encryption technologies have a fundamental role in our daily lives. In fact, WhatsApp and Telegram use them to encrypt our messages; Banks turn to them to Protect our transactions And every time we buy something on the Internet, it is the encryption that is responsible for protecting our credit card information. These are just some of the applications of this technology. Keith Martin, professor of the Information Security Group at the University of London (England), has published in The conversation An interesting article in which it addresses this topic. And it reminds us of something important: the threat of quantum computers to encryption technologies is very real, but we have no reason to panic because many researchers have been working on the solution to this challenge for several years. In fact, most of the theoretical work is already done. In 2024 the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States published an initial set of standards that includes a post -mecuantic keys exchange mechanism and several postcuantic digital signature schemes. The work that is already done invites us to anticipate that at the time the relevant quantum computers appear from a cryptographic point of view Technologies will already be ready They will be able to protect our information. And in all likelihood these techniques will also be in the hands of quantum computers, such as Juan José García Ripoll holdsResearcher at the Institute of Fundamental Physics of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Image | IBM More information | The conversation In Xataka | China manufactures quantum computers as if it were life in it. Its best plant is capable of producing eight at the same time

Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. And those responsible will be quantum computers

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Experts Quantum computing They have known for several years that quantum computers will end classical cryptography. One of them, Juan José García Ripoll, a researcher at the Institute of Fundamental Physics of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) who develops his research activity within the quantum information group and foundations of quantum theory, He warned us During the conversation we had with him in October 2019. That moment arrived in May 2024. A team of researchers from the University of Shanghai (China) led by Professor Wang Chao used a D-Wave quantum computer for I successfully violate the SPN encryption (Substitation-Permutation Network), which is a cryptographic algorithm that is used to encrypt information. This encryption is the cornerstone of, for example, the AES standard (Advanced Encryption Standard), which is used a lot. These scientists published the result of their research in An interesting article entitled “Public Cryptographic Attack Algorithm based on quantum processing with the advantage of D-Wave”. Interestingly, Professor Wang Chao and his team used two strategies to carry out their attack on cryptographic algorithms. The first one consists of broad strokes to deliver to the quantum computer the combination of an optimization problem and another search. Quantum machines are very effective when solving these challenges. And the second strategy consists in combining Schnorr’s algorithm, Babai rounding and a quantum method of optimization. In any case, the most interesting thing is that these Chinese scientists concluded that AES-256 and other military degree encryption algorithms are closer than ever to be violated. Google says that quantum machines will break the encryption of cryptocurrencies During my conversation with Juan José García Ripoll I did not let the opportunity to ask what would happen when quantum computers were able to violate the most advanced encryption technologies we currently use. “In principle, quantum computers will make the encryption algorithms that we use. For this reason there is a research area in mathematics and cryptography: cryptography resistant to quantum computers. It is a very difficult field of work. The alternative to the fact that many codes can break with quantum computers is to use quantum systems for cryptography,” Ripoll holds. An RSA integer of 2,048 bits can be factor in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than one million cubits The course of time has proved him right. And it is that several Google researchers less than a week ago They published an entry In the blog dedicated to the security of this American company in which they support a crucial premise: an integer RSA (Rivest – Shamir – Adleman) of 2,048 bits can factor in less than a week with a quantum computer of less than one million cubits. One of the most advanced quantum processors that currently exist, IBM Condor Chipagglutina 1,121 superconductor cubits, so it is evident that we still do not have quantum machines with the necessary power to violate RSA encryption. However, they could be ready before we suspect. The quantum machine described by Google researchers use noisy cubits, and IBM’s official itinerary argues that ‘Starling’, its first quantum hardware endowed with the ability to correct their own mistakes, It will arrive in 2029. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and the other modern cryptocurrencies use a cryptography technique known as elliptical curve that is more robust, efficient and difficult to break than RSA, but its mathematical foundations are similar to those of the latter encryption algorithm. In fact, according to Google scientists signed by the article that I have mentioned above, if the future quantum computers will cost them less than initially breaking the RSA encryption, the cryptography of elliptical curve will also fall with relative ease. It is still not clear What capabilities will have to have quantum machines which will be able to violate this encryption technique, but According to a research group from Kent University (United Kingdom), Bitcoin can update the encryption of the entire network without “turning it off” in approximately ten months. Image | IBM More information | Google In Xataka | China manufactures quantum computers as if it were life in it. Its best plant is capable of producing eight at the same time

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