Encrypted communication has become the norm for billions of people over the past decade. Daily, Signals, iMessage and whatsapp retain billions of messages, photos, videos, and private calls by using end-to-end encryption by default, while Zoom, Discord and various other services have options that can enable protection. But despite the rising mainstream of this technology, the long-standing threat to crypto-weakening remains piling up.
Over the past few months, privacy advocates and experts say government and law enforcement efforts have surged, which will effectively undermine encryption, with some of the emerging threats being the most “blunt” and aggressive threats in recent memory. Since early 2025, officials in the UK, France and Sweden have taken action to potentially undermine or eliminate protection from end-to-end encryption, which has exacerbated the European Union’s multi-year plan to scan private chats and Indian efforts to undermine encryption.
These latest attacks on encryption are as U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement officers have recently traced back to years of anti-absorbing attitudes, and it is now recommended that people use encrypted communication platforms at any time. The huge shift in attitude comes as China-backed Salt Typhoon Hacker Group widely violates major U.S. telecommunications, as the second Trump administration intensifies potential surveillance of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Meanwhile, the government has been under long-term tensions, crucial international intelligence-sharing agreements and partnerships.
“The trend is bleak,” said Carmela Troncoso, a long-term researcher in privacy and cryptography and a scientific director at the Max-Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Germany. “We think these new policies are emerging as mushrooms that attempt to undermine crypto.”
End-to-end encryption is designed so only the senders and recipients of messages can access their content – governments, tech companies and telecom providers cannot peek at what people are saying. For decades, these privacy and security assurances have made encryption a target for law enforcement and government, as officials claim protection makes it difficult to investigate urgent threats such as child sexual abuse substances and terrorism.
As a result, governments around the world often propose technical mechanisms to bypass encryption and allow access to messages for investigation. However, cryptologists and technicians repeatedly and explicitly warn that any backdoor used to access end-to-end encrypted communications can be exploited by hackers or authoritarian governments, thus undermining everyone’s security. Furthermore, criminals are likely to find ways to continue using homemade encryption tools to mask their information, meaning backdoors in mainstream products will successfully undermine public protection without eliminating the use of bad actors.
Namrata Maheshwari, head of crypto policy for international nonprofit visits, said broadly, there are three forms of recent threats to encryption. First, in some cases, governments or law enforcement agencies require backdoors to be built into encryption platforms for “legal access.” For example, at the end of February, Apple used its encrypted iCloud backup system (called Advanced Data Protection) from the UK, which was reportedly used by lawmakers in the UK, and reportedly required Apple to provide access to encrypted files, according to secret orders. To do this, Apple will have to create a backdoor. The Trump administration’s criticism order will be challenged at a secret court hearing on March 14.
