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Forward secrecy (also known as perfect forward secrecy) is a property of an encryption system that ensures that a session key cannot be derived from previous session keys or from the long-term keys of the parties involved. This helps to protect against attacks that involve the compromise of long-term keys, as an attacker would not be able to decrypt past communications even if they are able to obtain a long-term key.
Forward secrecy is achieved by using a key exchange algorithm that generates a unique session key for each communication session. The session key is used to encrypt and decrypt the data for that session, and it is discarded when the session is over. This ensures that the session key cannot be derived from previous session keys or from the long-term keys of the parties involved.
Forward secrecy protocols are used to establish secure communication channels and are a key component of many security protocols, such as SSL/TLS and OTR. They are widely used to secure communication and transactions over the Internet and are an important tool for protecting against attacks that involve the compromise of long-term keys.