Security News

UPDATE: Enigmail and GPG Tools have been patched for EFAIL. For more up-to-date information, please see EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guides.

Don’t panic! But you should stop using PGP for encrypted email and switch to a different secure communications method for now.

A group of researchers released a paper today that describes a new class of serious vulnerabilities in PGP (including GPG), the most popular email encryption standard. The new paper...

UPDATE: Enigmail and GPG Tools have been patched for EFAIL. For more up-to-date information, please see EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guides.

UPDATE (5/14/18): More information has been released. See EFF's more detailed explanation and analysis here.

A group of European security researchers have released a warning about a set of vulnerabilities affecting users of PGP and S/MIME. EFF has been in communication with the research team, and...

Here at the Electronic Frontier Alliance, we’re lucky to have incredible member organizations engaging in advocacy on our issues across the U.S. One of those groups in Chicago, Lucy Parsons Labs (LPL), has done incredible work taking on a range of civil liberties issues. They’re a dedicated group of advocates volunteering to make their world (and the Windy City) a better, more equitable place.

We sat down with one of the founders of LPL, Freddy Martinez, to gain a better...

Security is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, and features that are prohibitively inconvenient for some could be critical for others. For most users, standard account security settings options are sufficient protection against common threats. But for the small minority of users who might be targeted individually—like journalists, policy makers, campaign staff, activists, people with abusive exes, or victims of stalking—standard security options won’t cut it.

For those users,...

Perhaps you’re an office manager tasked with setting up a new email system for your nonprofit, or maybe you’re a legal secretary for a small firm and you’ve been asked to choose an app for scanning sensitive documents: you might be wondering how you can even begin to assess a tool as “safe enough to use.” This post will help you think about how to approach the problem and select the right vendor.

As every organization has unique circumstances and needs, we can’t provide definitive...

From the time Donald Trump became president-elect in November 2016 and through 2017, EFF was flooded by requests for digital security workshops. They poured in from all over the country: educational nonprofits, legal groups, libraries, activist networks, newsrooms, scientist groups, religious organizations. There are a few reasons for this rise in digital security training requests. Certainly, the 2016 election made a lot of communities rethink their relationships with the U.S....

Do your friends and family rope you into providing tech support when you're home for the holidays? Use this opportunity to be a digital security hero and rescue your family from tracking cookies, unencrypted disks, insecure chats, and recycled passwords.

Check out EFF’s Security Education Companion for ideas and inspiration. And remember: People learn by doing! Encourage friends and family members to walk through new security concepts and tools with you, and avoid the pitfalls of...

The need for robust personal digital security is growing every day. From grassroots groups to civil society organizations to individual EFF members, people from across our community are voicing a need for accessible security education materials to share with their friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

We are thrilled to help. Today, EFF has launched the Security Education Companion, a new resource for people who would like to help their communities learn about digital security but...

The detention of a group of human rights defenders in Turkey for daring to learn about digital security and encryption continued last week with a brief appearance of the accused in an Istanbul court. Six were returned to jail, and four released on bail. In an additionally absurd twist, the four released activists were named in new detention orders on Friday, and are now being re-arrested.

Among those currently being held in jail are Ali Gharavi and Peter Steudtner, digital security...

Turkish police officers in plainclothes yesterday raided a digital security training meeting on the island of Buyukuda in Istanbul, seizing equipment and detaining ten attendees­, including Idil Eser, the director of Amnesty International Turkey. The human rights defenders are still being held in separate detention centers, and were denied access to lawyers and the press for over 24 hours.

Amnesty's Turkey researcher reports that Eser faces at least seven days pre-trial detention...

EFF is pleased to announce a series of community security trainings in partnership with the San Francisco Public Library. High-profile data breaches and hard-fought battles against unlawful mass surveillance programs underscore that the public needs practical information about online security. We know more about potential threats each day, but we also know that encryption works and can help thwart digital spying. Lack of knowledge about best practices puts individuals at risk, so EFF will...