Encryption: How to secure communication?

Encryption can be a powerful technique to protect your communication. In that chapter, we explain what types of encryption exist, what questions journalists should ask themselves about encrypted communication tools and what characteristics popular encryption tools have.

What encryption means

Encryption means to change an original message with a unique key, so that only people with access to the key can rebuilt the text. There are different ways of encryption, with different levels of protection.

Key questions

It is not easy to decide whether a tool is useful or not. As encryption can be essential for journalists and their sources, the questions as follows should help make an assessment about specific tools.

Tools and services

Digital security is complex. Individual needs have to be identified in a personal threat modeling. Therefore, we do not give recommendations, but provide important information about common tools and services.

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