It all started with Ashley Madison. When the breach of the adulterous dating site in 2015 led to divorces and even suicides after profiles were leaked online, people began to wake up to the dangers of unencrypted data. But it was only after a string of further hacks in 2017, including on the UK's centralised medical record service care.data, that the public started clamouring for protection. Tech firms continued the encryption roll-out started as a result of the Snowden leaks, while cryptographers stepped up research on new and easier-to-use techniques to protect our data. At the same time, laws were brought in requiring that any unencrypted database be air-gapped - that is, removed from any kind of network - to significantly reduce the possibility of a hack.
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