As tensions cool somewhat between Apple and the United States government over the unlocking of an iPhone used by terror suspect Syed Farook, a parallel but bigger fight is set to heat up worldwide over unbreakable commercial encryption apps.

The Apple–Justice Department saga entails access to content stored in iPhones whereas the fight over unbreakable commercial encryption apps involves unscrambling encrypted content sent by every mobile and computing device.

Commercial encryption apps are off-the-shelf cryptographic applications that encipher digital contents, rendering them unreadable even if intercepted during transmission.

By encoding every transmission with a unique “key” — typically, a very large number — commercial encryption apps ensure that only the person(s) holding the specific key can decipher the encrypted message.

… Dr Tan Teck Boon is a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University. His research covers the policy implications of science and technology.