It seems a given that enterprises today would want to ensure their data security strategy is rock-solid given the vulnerabilities in traditional cryptography being exposed by advancing cyberthreats.
Too often, however, businesses become complacent, content to settle for a level of “computational security” that is sufficient, but far from optimal.
The long-established gold standard of cryptography, the one-time pad, has been deemed impractical at scale and dismissed as a viable option at the enterprise level — but OTP key transmission has now been made practical for deployment across multiple use cases, and it’s a revolution in encryption that couldn’t have come soon enough.
Advancing Cyberthreats and the Need for Better Cryptography
First, an overview of why organizations need to up-level their cryptography game in today’s cybersecurity landscape.
Technology is advancing rapidly in the digital age, and as it does, cybercriminals are finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities and steal sensitive data. Advances in mathematics and developments in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning have made it easier for hackers to launch attacks that are more sophisticated and harder to detect.
The attack surface is expanding, too, at an incredible rate, as data volumes grow, IoT devices spread, and the number of remote workers continues to rise.
The rise of quantum computers poses another serious threat — able to perform calculations exponentially faster than classical computers, quantum computers will be able to break currently relied-upon encryption such as RSA, and bad actors are already storing sensitive data until such time as this becomes a viable reality.
Economic instability and inflation are only adding fuel to the fire, increasing remediation costs for businesses in the event of a breach.
It’s clear the rise in cybercrime is a trend that shows no signs of abating in the near future. In light of this reality, the best way for organizations to mitigate the risk of a cyberattack and its associated costs is to develop a secure communication strategy, and better cryptography is key.
One-Time Pad Encryption — The Best Defense
The so-called “gold standard” in cryptography, the one-time pad (OTP), is considered as such because it provides perfect secrecy. When executed correctly, even an attacker with unlimited computational power cannot gain any information about the original plaintext of a one-time pad encrypted message.
When four critical attributes of the OTP key are in place — a key generated by a true random number generator, a key size equal to the length of the encrypted message, uniqueness of the key (used only once), and a key that remains secret — one-time pad encryption has been mathematically proven to be unbreakable. However, it’s also heretofore proven to be impractical for enterprise adoption. This is due to challenges around OTP key transmission — the requirement that the OTP key be at least as long as the message it’s protecting makes it difficult to use for the large amounts of data businesses must manage.
Fortunately, a breakthrough in OTP key transmission has emerged that solves for the limitations of the one-time pad at scale. And as the need for stronger encryption becomes more urgent, it’s a breakthrough well worth considering for organizations looking to stay ahead of the cybersecurity curve.
A Breakthrough in OTP Key Transmission
Theon Technology has been working for more than a decade to develop next-generation solutions to today’s encryption challenges.
Theon’s patented TheonEncrypt™ is one-time pad-inspired encryption, offering a unique approach that finally enables commercial viability of quantum-proof encryption for both data at-rest and in-flight.
Theon solves the challenge of distributing large OTP keys over distance with a breakthrough based on transmission of compact data parcels, “shared short secrets,” that enable secure reconstitution of keys and decryption of ciphertext. Theon’s innovative method for reducing OTP key storage and transmission overhead makes secure OTP key exchange possible for businesses for the first time. And, because TheonEncrypt™ is a software approach, it drives flexibility across deployment models for a wide range of solutions in almost every industry and use case.
The only cipher ever deemed “perfect” is now practical for enterprise adoption. Theon preserves the inherent advantages of OTP while eliminating the biggest obstacle to adoption — a momentous step toward perfect information security.
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Take advantage of the highest level of digital encryption — Contact a Theon expert to get started with our enterprise-ready one-time pad-inspired security solution. We also have free eBooks available for download, including our latest, The Secure Enterprise Communication Handbook, which offers an overview of everything decision makers need to know to prepare a secure communication strategy