It is hard to predict when quantum computers will be strong and fast enough to crack the codes that keep bitcoin safe. But that day is coming.

Claims Toshiba is developing secure quantum cryptography should be taken with a quantum of salt, a number of cybersecurity experts say.

By Bruce Schneier.

With the recent announcement by the British Government (specifically David Cameron) on wanting to ban civilian encryption in the UK (or at least requiring ALL encryption used have Government keys or back-doors), it is important to understand the danger in that. NO ENTITY can even be 80% sure that the back-doors (etc.) in any product or network won't be used by/for nefarious purposes. Period. It hurts us all equally in the long run. Today's gov. spy program is tomorrow's organized crime tool.

James Comey, the director of the FBI, told a Senate committee Wednesday that the government should have the right to lawfully access any device or electronic form of communication with a lawful court order, even it is encrypted.

The U.S. government wants to stop terrorists and criminals from 'going dark.' But at what cost?

If it were possible, would proponents of “backdoor” access to encrypted communication also favor equivalent access to the private thoughts in our brains? By Conor Friedersdorf.

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

This is how ANC operatives sent encrypted messages to one another in the final years of apartheid.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Tuesday that encryption makes it harder for law enforcement to track down “evildoers” — and called for a “much better, more cooperative relationship” with Apple, Google, and other tech companies that are building uncrackable private communication apps into their new products.

Jeb Bush’s conclusions regarding encryption are fundamentally flawed, because they ignore one simple inevitable fact. The Internet is going dark. What does “going dark” mean? It means that because we are arriving at the dawn of a new era — an era defined by the pervasiveness and ubiquity of strong encryption on a global scale — all intercepted Internet traffic will soon be unreadable.

In the last few weeks, I’ve had several interesting conversations concerning email encryption. I’m also trying to develop some concept of what areas Thunderbird should view as our special emphases as we look forward. The question is, with our limited resources, should we strive to make better support of end-to-end email encryption a vital Thunderbird priority?

In its attempt to destroy information, GCHQ may not have realized it was creating other important information: exactly what it was doing and why.

For nearly 250 years, this book concealed the arcane rituals of an ancient order. But cracking the code only deepened the mystery. By Noah Schachtman.

Founder of Kryptnostic, Matthew Tamayo-Rios. He claims to have created the first practical application for fully homomorphic encryption, a “holy grail” for securing data.

While the increasing regularity of both computing and security breaches makes Clapper’s concerns very real, the approach the intelligence agencies want to take is sorely inadequate. While they spent a long time discussing deterrence and surveillance, Clapper et al. practically ignored the most crucial and central aspect of fighting cyberattacks: security.

The US government whistleblower Edward Snowden believes encryption might make it difficult or even impossible to distinguish signals from alien species from cosmic background radiation. On Friday night, Snowden appeared from Moscow on the astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk podcast, via a robot video link called a “beam remote presence system”.

Rapid advances in technology could soon turn science fiction notions of effortless encryption into a reality. But ensuring that we can trust that technology will take more public vigilance against government and corporate eavesdropping.

“Indistinguishability obfuscation” is a powerful concept that would yield provably secure versions of every cryptographic system we’ve ever developed and all those we’ve been unable to develop. But nobody knows how to put it into practice.

Soon, you may see a warning in Gmail that tells you that an email has arrived over an unencrypted connection. Gmail already defaults to using HTTPS for the connections between your browser and its servers, but for the longest time, the standard practice for sending email between providers was to leave them unencrypted. If somebody managed to intercept those messages, it was pretty trivial to snoop on them.

Fraunhofer Institute gives clean bill of health to crypto tool used by millions.

New untraceable text-messaging system comes with statistical guarantees.

Citing San Bernardino, President Obama and Hillary Clinton are upping pressure on social media sites and tech companies that provide end-to-end encryption. By Dan Froomkin.

Computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new SMS text messaging system that is untraceable and apparently even more secure than the Tor anonymity network, in order to create truly anonymous communications. In July, researchers from MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) succeeded in cracking a security vulnerability affecting the Tor anonymity network to make it possible to identify hidden servers with up to 88% accuracy.

Hillary Clinton suggested that tech companies work together with the government to create a “a Manhattan-like project” at tonight’s Democratic national debate. The Manhattan Project, if you a need a refresher, was a research and development collaboration between the US, UK, and Canada to develop weapons during World War II, culminating in the development of the atomic bomb. It was initially a secret military project. Over a hundred civilians died working on it.

Clinton’s Big Brotherish proposal at Saturday’s Democratic debate was both troubling and vague. By Tim Dickinson.

You might have heard that a few days ago, Juniper Systems announced the discovery of "unauthorized code" in the ScreenOS software that underlies the NetScreen line of devices... By Matthew Green.

It seems everywhere he goes these days, Apple CEO Tim Cook is out there forcefully and publicly defending his company’s decision to provide iPhone users with end-to-end text messaging and FaceTime encryption to protect against the constant threat of criminal hackers and foreign governments. The question is: when will other tech company leaders follow his lead? If we’re going to avoid having a horrible law banning encryption passed in the next year...

The move comes as other nations move to weaken encryption.

The technology that keeps your text messages private had its start on the banks of the Tigris River, 3500 years ago. By Kaveh Waddell.

Get a public key, safely, starting just with someone's social media username(s). Lets bring this tribe back! I'm going to go to sleep and will add the first 4 requests I get.

A bill in the state assembly would prevent companies like Apple from selling its encryption-enabled iPhone on its own turf.

A small email provider and its customers have almost single-handedly forced the Swiss government to put its new invasive surveillance law up for a public vote in a national referendum in June. “This law was approved in September, and after the Paris attacks, we assumed privacy was dead at that point,” said Andy Yen, co-founder of ProtonMail, when I spoke with him on the phone.

The Intercept recently reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a private meeting with White House officials and other technology leaders, criticized the federal government’s stance on encryption and technology back doors (see “Tim Cook Confronts the White House Over Encryption,” 14 January 2016). As it was a private meeting, we don’t know exactly what happened, and The Intercept is admittedly biased on this issue, but such statements would...

After over a week of investigation, the Alrawi encryption app is nowhere to be found.