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WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services face pressure to hand over access to encrypted chats after a meeting between the "Five Eyes" nations which share intelligence this week. "The Five Eyes are united that tech firms should not develop their systems and services, including end-to-end encryption, in ways that empower criminals or put vulnerable people at risk."

None of us who favor strong encryption is saying that child exploitation isn't a serious crime, or a worldwide problem. We're not saying that about kidnapping, international drug cartels, money laundering, or terrorism. We are saying three things. One, that strong encryption is necessary for personal and national security. Two, that weakening encryption does more harm than good. And three, law enforcement has other avenues for criminal investigation than eavesdropping on communications and stored devices.

Moody's Ratings published a report on recent advances in quantum computing that will threaten encryption techniques used today. Data encryption standards able to withstand the power of quantum computers have been unveiled by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that will protect intellectual property and classified government documents from computers that leverage the properties of quantum mechanics to perform calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. However, the transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) will be long and costly.

Crunchfish has recently implemented and patented a novel approach with balance reconciliation. Private transactions are encrypted and sent to the backend, but where the keys used for the transaction are wallet keys, in contrast to prior art using public keys controlled by either the issuer or an escrow agent. In this way the payer is in full control of the privacy of their transactions even if all private transactions are sent to the online ledger encrypted. In this innovative way, regulatory requirements for transactional traceability are balanced with requirements for privacy where the payer is in full control of the encrypted transactional data for amounts below defined thresholds, defined by the issuer and the regulator. If the issuer suspects an attack by the payer, the issuer can contact the payer for permission to decrypt the data. In case the payer is not willing to grant access, the issuer may decide to lock the wallet or disallow any more private transactions.

While quantum machines are still a long way from being able to break modern encryption, US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a competition in 2016 to develop new standards for cryptography that will be more quantum-proof. The winners are set to be announced in 2022, but last week the organization announced that it had narrowed the initial field of 69 contenders down to just 15. And so far a single approach to "post-quantum cryptography" accounts for the majority of the finalists: lattice-based cryptography. Lattice-based cryptography instead uses enormous grids with billions of individual points across thousands of dimensions. Breaking the code means getting from one specific point to another-which is essentially impossible unless you know the route. NIST thinks is that lattice problems are really hard, but they seem quite efficient in terms of time to generate keys, time to construct signatures, and also efficient in terms of memory.

Researchers have calculated that it would require 13 × 106 physical qubits to break the Bitcoin network's 256-bit elliptic curve key encryption within one day. In other words, no time soon because IBM's largest superconducting quantum computer is just 127 physical qubits.

In Facebook's vision, the actual end-to-end encryption client itself such as WhatsApp will include embedded content moderation and blacklist filtering algorithms. These algorithms will be continually updated from a central cloud service, but will run locally on the user's device, scanning each cleartext message before it is sent and each encrypted message after it is decrypted... Of course alternatives like Signal will exist for those who don't want to be subject to Facebook's content moderation, but what happens when this filtering technology is built into operating systems?

This IMF paper discusses the benefits and risks of quantum computing. On the risk side, they would crack many of the current encryption algorithms and threaten financial stability by compromising the security of mobile banking, e-commerce, fintech, digital currencies, and Internet information exchange. While the work on quantum-safe encryption is still in progress, the paper recommends that financial institutions take steps now to prepare for the cryptographic transition, by assessing future and retroactive risks from quantum computers, taking an inventory of their cryptographic algorithms (especially public keys), and building cryptographic agility to improve the overall cybersecurity resilience.

The biggest threat to blockchain technology from quantum computing is its ability to break the traditional encryption. However, the sword of Quantum computing is not hanging on Blockchain only but on every platform that is protected with encryption. This would potentially include almost all of the Internet and Digital world we know today.

Chinese scientists have mounted what they say is the world's first effective attack on a widely used encryption method using a quantum computer. The breakthrough poses a "real and substantial threat" to the long-standing password-protection mechanism employed across critical sectors, including banking and the military, according to the researchers.

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced the first four quantum-resistant encryption algorithms, after a six-year competitive evaluation process.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration demanded a suspected drug dealer's passwords from LastPass (an encrypted vault for storing passwords). LastPass told them to take a hike although it did hand over IP addresses used by the suspect and information about the account's creation and usage.

"Curious about the potential of blockchain, our internal IT organization developed the idea to take existing paper contracts between Accenture and our clients and put them on a shared blockchain database that every party can use to securely view contracts, revise and accept changes, all captured on a blockchain ledger. We worked with other Accenture specialists, including legal, to prove out the idea, develop the platform, test and ultimately deploy a new product-Accenture Blockchain for Contracts. Built on R3 Corda technology and hosted through Microsoft Azure, Accenture Blockchain for Contracts provides a new way to draft and sign contracts with low friction, high efficiency and encrypted data."

In an application security, privacy, and compliance probe, testing firm ImmuniWeb highlighted the concerning state of security at the worlds largest financial institutions, handing only three an A+ result for SSL encryption and website security.

Satoshi Nakamoto will reveal his true identity in three installments, starting on August 18 at 4 pm Eastern time, including his plans for a bitcoin renaissance and an explanation of the critical role that Chaldean numerology cyphers and encryption played in his creation of bitcoin.

A Secure Element securely stores card/cardholder data and manages the reading of encrypted data. During a payment transaction it acts like a contactless payment card using industry standard technology to help authorize a transaction. The Secure Element could either be embedded in the phone or embedded in your SIM card.

Encrypted messaging app Telegram has appealed the court decision that effectively killed its attempt to distribute its GRAM tokens based on claims that the TON digital asset was an unregistered security.

"Backers of the EARN IT Act focus on protecting children from being exploited, but security experts say the bill actually chips away at your encrypted messages."

Telegram is now forcing the U.S.-based Gram token investors to take the 72% refund and exit the TON blockchain project. The encrypted messaging platform has also retracted last week's offer to pay investors in Gram tokens at all. These moves were based on the scheme's uncertain reception from the U.S. regulators.

TransferWise is the first firm to pilot the Visa Cloud Connect platform, which provides a secure cloud-based connection to VisaNet, including a unified certification and testing framework, Visa-hosted security services such as transaction encryption and PIN key management, and simplified settlement in local markets. This will enable TransferWise to expand its debit card program that accompanies its multi-currency account.