As enterprise infrastructure and advancements in technology grow businesses, encryption capabilities are accelerating to keep up. Yet, knowing which new technologies are going to take off is extremely difficult.
To find out what’s coming — and how the new encryption methods will change the business industry — I asked a panel of entrepreneurs from YEC the following question:
What do you predict will be the next big step for encryption technologies? How will this change impact the industry or consumers?
Their best answers are below:
1. Quantum Cryptography
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As quantum decryption becomes more relevant, it could create a society where encryption is useless because a quantum computer would be able to easily decrypt anything that is encrypted. The way to combat this would be via quantum cryptography which would prevent anybody from being able to read the message in transit. – Cody McLain, SupportNinja
2. Homomorphic Encryption
On January 22, there was an announcement that IBM, Intel and Microsoft were going to be pushing into homomorphic encryption. This encryption protocol was developed by the NSA and is used for fast transmission of highly classified material while keeping the material highly secured. Researchers and investors have been eager to pursue this and this will be a large change in less than five years. – Joel Mathew, Fortress Consulting
3. Biometric Encryption
As encryption technologies advance, everything will shift over to biometric markers like fingerprints, facial recognition and voice recognition. This type of technology will remove the need for remembering annoying passwords and answers to secret questions. For example, when you call your bank or any other service that needs verification, all you’ll need is your voice to verify your identity. – Jared Weitz, United Capital Source
4. Wearable Two-Factor Authentication
A really interesting development in security is around two-factor authentication and the opportunities that wearable technology can provide when it comes to delivering a user a cryptographically generated password which is much more secure than a typical “use a remember” password. As we are now used to having technology on our person at all times be it phone, watch, etc. – Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure
5. Peer-To-Peer Encryption
The growth of peer-to-peer encryption will be significant. With more and more communication tools popping up and data breaches creating chaos for users and business, securing these channels for users will be a critical norm soon to be achieved. – Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting
6. Widespread End-To-End Encryption
End-to-end encryption ensures no-one can read data except its owner. E2EE is a major privacy innovation because it allows businesses to entrust data to a platform they may not completely trust — which should be every platform. It isn’t new, but as businesses become conscious of privacy risks, they are adopting platforms that offer end-to-end encryption, forcing wider platform adoption. – Vik Patel, Future Hosting
7. Search Engines With Free VPNs
Search engines that automatically use virtual private networks to browse the internet anonymously. I think the next big change in encryption is the ability for consumers to avoid tracking from major companies and big data. I think consumers will become fed up with companies tracking and sharing all their personal data. – Brian Greenberg, True Blue Life Insurance
8. Honey Encryption
Honey encryption produces encoded text used to trick hackers and data thieves. They’ll think they’ve entered a correct password, but it’s really the honey encryption showing them different text that doesn’t give them access to the data they’re trying to retrieve. This type of encryption is constantly growing and deters hackers from getting access to important, encrypted information. – Jared Atchison, WPForms
9. Lattice Cryptography
Hackers are gonna hack. And hacking seems to become more sophisticated every year. One way tech is addressing this is through lattice cryptology. Lattice technology hides data inside complex algebraic structures called lattices in a way that even quantum computers of the future can’t decrypt them. – Shu Saito, Godai Soaps
10. Blockchain
It may seem like an oxymoron that a technology based on widely accessible, decentralized ledgers could lead to greater encryption technology, but there are surprising benefits to its adoption that could make it the next big thing. Reduced costs, not needing a physical “third party” for verification and a decreased computing load on local devices are only a few of blockchain encryption’s benefits. – Bryce Welker, Crush The CPA Exam
11. Moving Target Defense
Moving target defense is a new approach to security. It’s like playing a shell game with your data — only with 100s of shells. Hackers must pinpoint data across multiple surfaces before they can strike. MTD will change security. It’s highly scalable and can be used with legacy systems. Many Fortune 500 companies are currently using MTD to unlock cloud and distributed systems usage. – Shaun Conrad, My Accounting Course
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