#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Get the Free Newsletter
SaaS Security

end-to-end encryption | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

New Facebook feature Encourages users to use PGP for Encrypted Communications

New Facebook feature Encourages users to use PGP for Encrypted Communications
Jun 01, 2015
In this era of Global surveillance, we all are worried about the privacy of our communication and sensitive data. There is no guarantee that our data is not being snooped on, but there is a solution — PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is more than 20 years old technology but is yet not widely adopted. PGP is an open source end-to-end encryption standard to encrypt e-mails, protecting you against companies, governments, or criminals spying on your Internet connection. But... ...the tool is too complicated for most of the people to implement and use. However, Facebook is now encouraging its users to use PGP and communicate by sending encrypted emails, adding the popular OpenPGP email encryption standard as an extra layer of security for the cautious. According to the latest announcement , you can now upload your Public PGP key to your Facebook profile so that anyone with your public key can send you encrypted emails. By giving such option to

Yahoo! pays $24,000 to Hacker for finding Security Vulnerabilities

Yahoo! pays $24,000 to Hacker for finding Security Vulnerabilities
Mar 17, 2015
Yahoo! has offered $24,000 to a security researcher for finding out and reporting three critical security vulnerabilities in its products including Yahoo! Stores and Yahoo!-hosted websites. While testing all the company's application, Mark Litchfield , a bug bounty hunter who often works with different companies, discovered three critical vulnerabilities in Yahoo!'s products. All the three vulnerabilities have now been fixed by Yahoo!. THREE CRITICAL SECURITY VULNERABILITIES The first and most critical vulnerability gives hackers full administrator access to Yahoo!'s e-commerce platform, Yahoo! Small Business , a portal that allows small business owners to create their own web stores through Yahoo! and sell merchandise. According to the researcher, the flaw in the service allowed him to fully administrator any Yahoo store and thereby gain access to customers' personally identifiable information, including names, email addresses, telephone numbers.

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl

How to Accelerate Vendor Risk Assessments in the Age of SaaS Sprawl
Mar 21, 2024SaaS Security / Endpoint Security
In today's digital-first business environment dominated by SaaS applications, organizations increasingly depend on third-party vendors for essential cloud services and software solutions. As more vendors and services are added to the mix, the complexity and potential vulnerabilities within the  SaaS supply chain  snowball quickly. That's why effective vendor risk management (VRM) is a critical strategy in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to protect organizational assets and data integrity. Meanwhile, common approaches to vendor risk assessments are too slow and static for the modern world of SaaS. Most organizations have simply adapted their legacy evaluation techniques for on-premise software to apply to SaaS providers. This not only creates massive bottlenecks, but also causes organizations to inadvertently accept far too much risk. To effectively adapt to the realities of modern work, two major aspects need to change: the timeline of initial assessment must shorte

Signal 2.0 — Free iPhone App for Encrypted Calls and Texts

Signal 2.0 — Free iPhone App for Encrypted Calls and Texts
Mar 03, 2015
An open source software group, Open Whisper Systems , has announced the release of Signal 2.0 — the second version of its free and open source messaging application for iPhone and iPad users. Signal  app is specifically designed to make secure and easy-to-use encrypted voice calling. But that's what the application was providing in its previous release introduced last July with  Signal 1.0 . Apple's iMessage also provides encrypted communication, but it was challenged by security researchers in 2013, revealing that  Apple controls the key infrastructure  and could, in turn, be compelled to change a key anytime they want, and read the content of your messages. But there was no way to send secure messages from an iPhone iMessage to an Android phone, or vice versa, unless you signed up for a monthly subscription plan and got the person you wanted to communicate with to sign up for it too. GAME CHANGER: SIGNAL 2.0 Signal 2.0 lets you send end-to-end encrypted messages to us

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

cyber security
websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.

Telegram Messenger Offers Large File Sharing up to 1.5GB while you Chat

Telegram Messenger Offers Large File Sharing up to 1.5GB while you Chat
Feb 02, 2015
In spite of all the things smartphones can do, messaging remains one of the most popular activities. Popular messaging apps like WhatsApp , Viber, WeChat  support text messages, voice calls, photo & video sharing features, but there is no provision for sharing every file types on these amazing messengers. But, some or the other day, we all got struck into an awkward situation where we have to share PDF, apk or zip files with our friends while chatting. However using any other 3rd-party file sharing services, we can share image, video, audio, zip files or any other file type with our friends, but it would be a lengthy process and sometimes require to use computer. Gone are the days when you relied on your computer to get all of your work done. Telegram Messenger , the most popular and ultra secure messaging application, is now offering file sharing feature that allows its users to share large files and documents (up to 1.5GB) securely . Telegram is a messaging a

MegaChat — Kim Dotcom launches end-to-end encrypted Video Calling Service

MegaChat — Kim Dotcom launches end-to-end encrypted Video Calling Service
Jan 22, 2015
Are you worried about your privacy? Its Obvious because of a Hacker or the government could be snooping in your emails, voice or video calls. The Famous Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom , who introduced legendary Megaupload and Mega file sharing services to the World, has now released its latest encrypted communication software for video calling, messaging and chat. Kim Doctom's file-sharing site Mega has launched the public beta of its end-to-end encrypted video and audio chat service called " MegaChat ", which the company says gives better protection than alternatives such as Skype and Google Hangouts. MegaChat is currently free to use and right now just provides browser-based audio and video calls, but Mr. Dotcom said on Twitter "Text chat and video conferencing will follow soon," HOW TO USE MEGACHAT Create a Mega account. Simply log in via the web browser and click on the Conversations icon provided on the left-hand side  Contacts will need their own M

Peerio — End-to-End Encrypted Secure Messenger and File Sharing App

Peerio — End-to-End Encrypted Secure Messenger and File Sharing App
Jan 15, 2015
On one end, where governments of countries like U.K is criticizing end-to-end encryption and considering to ban the encrypted communication apps like Snapchat, CryptoCat, WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage. On the other hand, the Internet community has come up with a new and rather more secure encrypted communication app. Dubbed Peerio , an " encrypted productivity suite " designed to offer much more usable alternative to PGP email and file encryption, so that every individual user and business can encrypt everything from Instant Messages to online file storage. Peerio, released on Wednesday, is designed by 24-year-old Nadim Kobeissi – the creator of the end-to-end encrypted group messaging app Cryptocat and the encrypted file-sharing app MiniLock . " With Peerio everything you share or communicate with your team is secured with state-of-the-art encryption , and it's as easy as using Gmail. You don't need to learn to use it, " Kobeissi told Wired. &quo

UK Prime Minister wants to Ban Encrypted Messaging Apps

UK Prime Minister wants to Ban Encrypted Messaging Apps
Jan 13, 2015
The terrible terrorist attacks in France forced the British Prime Minister David Cameron to consider banning the popular encrypted online messaging apps like Snapchat , CryptoCat ,  WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage unless the companies don't give the UK government backdoor access to their encrypted communications. Speaking at a public event in the UK this morning, Cameron said that if he wins the next election and re-elected, he would seek to ban the encrypted communication apps as part of his plans for new surveillance powers in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris . The British Prime Minister said the Paris terror attacks, including the one last week on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, outlined the need for greater access on the encrypted communications. In his remarks, the attacks were aimed at messaging apps that encrypt messages to secure users' communications. " The attacks in Paris demonstrated the scale of the threat that we face and th

Google Releases Chrome Extension for End-To-End Email Encryption

Google Releases Chrome Extension for End-To-End Email Encryption
Dec 18, 2014
Back in june this year, Google announced an alpha Google Chrome extension called " End-to-End " for sending and receiving emails securely, in wake of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's revelations about the global surveillance conducted by the government law-enforcements. Finally, the company has announced that it made the source code for its End-to-End Chrome extension open source via GitHub . Google is developing a user-friendly tool for individuals to implement the tough encryption standard known as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) in an attempt to fully encrypt people's Gmail messages that can't even be read by Google itself, nor anyone else other than the users exchanging the emails. PGP is an open source end-to-end encryption standard for almost 20 years, used to encrypt e-mail over the Internet providing cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication, which makes it very difficult to break. But implementing PGP is too complicated for m

WhatsApp Messenger Adds End-to-End Encryption by Default

WhatsApp Messenger Adds End-to-End Encryption by Default
Nov 19, 2014
Good news for all Privacy Lovers!! Finally the wildly popular messaging app WhatsApp has made end-to-end encryption a default feature, stepping a way forward for the online privacy of its users around the world. WhatsApp , most popular messaging app with 600 Million users as of October 2014, has partnered with Open Whisper Systems to boost its privacy and security by implementing strong end-to-end encryption on all text messages. The strong end-to-end encryption here means that even Mark Zuckerberg himself can't pry into your conversations, even if asked by law enforcement officials. The app maker describe this move as the " largest deployment of end-to-end encryption ever ." The Open Whisper System is a non-profit software organisation started by security researcher Moxie Marlinspike, who is behind the development of TextSecure app used for encryption. Over the past three years, his team has been in the process of developing a 'modern, open source

Researcher Found TextSecure Messenger App Vulnerable to Unknown Key-Share Attack

Researcher Found TextSecure Messenger App Vulnerable to Unknown Key-Share Attack
Nov 03, 2014
Do you use  TextSecure Private Messenger  for your private conversations? If yes, then Are you sure you are actually using a Secure messaging app? TextSecure , an Android app developed by Open WhisperSystems , is completely open-source and claims to support end-to-end encryption of text messages. The app is free and designed by keeping privacy in mind. However, while conducting the first audit of the software, security researchers from Ruhr University Bochum found that the most popular mobile messaging app is open to an Unknown Key-Share attack . After Edward Snowden revealed state surveillance programs conducted by the National Security Agency, and meanwhile when Facebook acquired WhatsApp , TextSecure came into limelight and became one of the best alternatives for users who want a secure communication. " Since Facebook bought WhatsApp , instant messaging apps with security guarantees became more and more popular ," the team wrote in the paper titled,

Cryptography Expert Says, 'PGP Encryption is Fundamentally Broken, Time for PGP to Die'

Cryptography Expert Says, 'PGP Encryption is Fundamentally Broken, Time for PGP to Die'
Aug 19, 2014
A Senior cryptography expert has claimed multiple issues with PGP email encryption - an open source end-to-end encryption  to secure email. Before continuing, I would like to clarify that covering this topic doesn't mean you should stop using PGP encryption , instead we are bringing to you what Security researcher has argued about its fundamental implications.  PGP or Pretty Good Privacy , a program written in 1991, uses symmetric public key cryptography and hashing that allow both Privacy and Security , as well as Authenticity . Privacy and Security ensure users to exchange messages securely and Authenticity proves the origin of those messages. But PGP is a complicated multi-step process, which requires users to keep track of the public keys of other users in order to communicate. Despite clumsiness of the PGP implementation, the popular Internet giants such as Google and Yahoo! have looked forward to integrate it into their popular email services. A respected research profes

End-to-End Encryption for Yahoo Mail Coming Next Year

End-to-End Encryption for Yahoo Mail Coming Next Year
Aug 08, 2014
Today at Black Hat 2014 hacking conference, Yahoo! Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos announced that the company will start giving its consumers the option of end-to-end encryption in its Mail service by next year. Google showed off a PGP-based encryption plugin for Gmail back in June. The Purple-hued company will offer encryption via a modified version of the same End-to-End browser plug-in that Google uses for PGP in Gmail, Alex Stamos told the audience at his talk titled Building Safe Systems at Scale - Lessons from Six Months at Yahoo. The PGP plugin will be native in mobile apps allowing Gmail and Yahoo mail to easily exchange encrypted email. Infact, the email providers themselves won't be able to decrypt messages exchanged between its users. Only senders and recipients will be able to read the messages. In short, it means that Yahoo email users can reportedly send safe and secure messages between Yahoo users and also Gmail adherents without fear, wh

BitTorrent Unveiled New Decentralized "Bleep" Instant Messenger

BitTorrent Unveiled New Decentralized "Bleep" Instant Messenger
Jul 31, 2014
Pretty good news for privacy-oriented people! BitTorrent unwraps its new instant messaging program that doesn't store your metadata and helps you with encrypted communication to keep your online conversations private, whether its voice or text communications. BitTorrent named its Online chat service as " Bleep ", a decentralised peer-to-peer voice and text communications platform that offers end-to-end encryption, therefore is completely safe from the prying eyes. In order to spread users' voice and text conversations, Bleep make use of the BitTorrent distributed network rather than a centralised server. Unlike Skype or Google Hangouts, Bleep comes with with a completely decentralized design, giving you extremely strong anonymity. WHY BLEEP? " We never see your messages or metadata, " said Jaehee Lee, the senior product manager for Bleep, in a blog post announcing the new app on Wednesday. " As far as we're concerned, anything you say is 'bleep'

Signal — Open Source iPhone App to Make Free End-to-End Encrypted Voice Calls

Signal — Open Source iPhone App to Make Free End-to-End Encrypted Voice Calls
Jul 30, 2014
Good News for Privacy Lovers!! An open source software group Open Whisper Systems has released the first free and Open Source phone call application for iPhone users, which is specifically designed to make secure and encrypted calls. When we talk about the privacy of our messages and voice calls, Open Whisper Systems has usually a very strong track record. Whisper is the company behind the development of RedPhone and TextSecure for Android, providing encrypted calls and texts respectively to users. Moving on to iOS devices , the company decided to produce simplest and easiest interfaces yet. Better known as Signal , a free iOS app designed to enable easy and strongly encrypted voice calls . The Signal application for iPhone is completely compatible with OWS's time-tested and well-known RedPhone . Eventually, Signal will be a combination of both RedPhone and TextSecure in a single Android application , according to a blog post . Signal makes use of end-to-end encrypt

PayPal Freezes $275,000 Campaign Funds of Secure-Email Startup 'ProtonMail'

PayPal Freezes $275,000 Campaign Funds of Secure-Email Startup 'ProtonMail'
Jul 01, 2014
ProtonMail ,  an End-to-End Encrypted email service developed by MIT, Harvard and CERN researchers, who already received over $275,000 from a crowdfunding campaigns to their PayPal account, and was so much excited to launch its beta version, but just before that PayPal freezes their account without any warning. " At this time, it is not possible for ProtonMail to receive or send funds through PayPal, " ProtonMail co-founder Andy Yen announced this morning. " No attempt was made by PayPal to contact us before freezing our account, and no notice was given. " ProtonMail is a new super-secure email service that encrypts the data on the browser before it communicates with the server, this means only encrypted data is stored in the email service servers. GO HOME PAYPAL, YOU ARE DRUNK ProtonMail service is based in Switzerland, so it won't have to comply with American courts' demands to provide users data. But a representative from the American payment service, PayPal

Google offers Chrome Extension for End-To-End Gmail Encryption

Google offers Chrome Extension for End-To-End Gmail Encryption
Jun 04, 2014
Everything we do online, whether chatting on phone, talking via video or audio, sending messages on phones or emails are being watched by Governments and Intelligence agencies. However, many Internet giants offer encrypted environment in an effort to protect our online data from prying eyes, but still those companies can read our data stored into their servers. But, there is a great news for Gmail users. On Tuesday, Google has announced two major privacy enhancements in its Gmail and this new push for its email service will even protect our data and communication from Google itself. With the ongoing concerns about privacy and the pervasiveness of email communications, Google already provides encryption for its Gmail called Transit encryption (HTTPS). In which only the transmission of emails sending or receiving is protected by the transit encryption but not the content of the email. Few Months back, Google itself admitted that their automated systems read our email c

ProtonMail: 'NSA-Proof' End-to-End Encrypted Email Service

ProtonMail: 'NSA-Proof' End-to-End Encrypted Email Service
May 26, 2014
The Edward Snowden revelations triggered a large-scale movement worldwide towards deploying encryption across the Internet for secure services, which is something the government agencies like NSA and GCHQ have targeted repeatedly, as exemplified by abruptly shutting down Lavabit , a Texas-based Encrypted Email Service. In response, a group of young developers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has launched a new email service which offers end-to-end encryption and securing communications that could put an end to government snooping and will keep away our personal data from prying eyes. PROTONMAIL - AN END-to-END ENCRYPTED EMAIL This new encrypted email service, called ProtonMail is a super-secure email service created in collaboration with the scientists from Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the European research lab CERN. ProtonMail offers a user-friendly experience with full "end-to-end" encryption . It encrypts the data on the browser
Cybersecurity Resources