A guide to end to end encryption (e2ee)

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What is an end to end encryption (e2ee)?

E2ee is, simply put, a data security method that makes sure of one important thing. Namely, only the sender and receiver can access the data sent between them, preventing any third party from accessing it as it moves over networks. When we say networks, these could be of any kind, e.g., the internet, local, or Wi-Fi.

The advantage of e2ee is that if someone intercepts your data, they wouldn’t be able to decrypt it without both keys from both parties.

How does end-to-end encryption work?

On a fundamental level, the e2ee process starts when a message/data gets sent from a device. The data gets encrypted at the sender’s end, with only the receiver able to decrypt it. Encryption turns the data into ciphertext, essentially an unreadable format. This is called cryptography.

To decrypt the data, the receiving device needs a secret key, and that private key is only stored on that device.

The name of this process is called asymmetric cryptography, and it uses a public-private key pair. The sender uses the receiver’s public key (available to everyone) to send the message. However, the receiver has a private and a public key, which is mathematically related. Only the receiver’s private key can decrypt the ciphertext. This is the secret key that we discussed above.

Due to this, data can travel over various connections and servers and even be intercepted. Without both keys, decryption is not possible.

Also, the keys won’t ever coincide; the system will create unique ones whenever someone becomes part of it.