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famous_cat_slicer t1_je94s49 wrote

Reply to comment by Pokinator in ELI5: When a third party app says they offer "end to end encryption," what does that mean? by [deleted]

> (most in-use algorithms are pretty break-proof at the moment).

Your use of "most" in this context is slightly worrying. What are the exceptions?

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frzx1 t1_je99odh wrote

The exceptions fall in the experimental area of encryption. What I mean by that is that the most applications you use today, WhatsApp, Signal, Banking apps, are all encrypted with a military grade encryption, but if you go try out experimental encrypting algorithms then you are at risk. Note that the latter does not happen in your regular day to day life, encryption standards are extremely uniform.

Edit: also, be aware that the applications that have implemented an unbreakable encryption algorithm can still decrypt your files as they have the keys to decrypt them. They're bound to not do it going by the privacy agreement but they potentially can. There are exceptions to it, like Apple's advanced E2E standard where not even Apple has your keys.

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Dovaldo83 t1_jea3yqt wrote

Quantum computers are capable of taking encryptions that would normally take super computers 500 years to crack and crack them in minutes.

That said quantum computers are still so expensive and rare that you and I shouldn't be concerned about someone using them against us. They've already started development on encryption methods that use quantum phenomena to encrypt messages that even quantum computers have a hard time cracking.

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Pokinator t1_jea9qwz wrote

I used "Most" instead of "All" mainly for technicality.

TL;DR Rock-Solid encryptions exist, but that doesn't guarantee everyone is using them or using them correctly.

Firstly, just because there's options for solid encryption algorithms doesn't mean they're universally used. For example, the chat app that Bob down the street wrote could be using a very weak Caesar Shift encryption rather than something strong like AES or RSA.

Secondly, some encryptions are only as strong as their choice of key. For example, RSA uses prime numbers to generate keys in a way that's very not ELI5. Basically, 3 primes get used to generate an "encrypt" number, and a "decrypt" number.

If you follow guidelines, the secret "Decrypt" number is practically impossible to guess or calculate. However, if you choose irresponsibly bad starting numbers then a hacker can look at your public Encrypt number and go "hey, that looks like they might have..." and workshop the secret from there.

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