Encryption essays

Encryption essays Information, whether it is intelligence gathered during war or a person's credit card number transmitted for an online transaction, has proven to be a valuable asset in all functions of society. The nature of some information requires that it is will guarded and that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Early history has shown that notable individuals have used imaginative ways of hiding the true meaning of a message or information by using the science of encryption. Commanders in World War II used encryption to disguise messages relayed between their troops by sea, air and land. Presently, encryption is being used to disguise a person's credit card number during an online transaction or to protects a person's vital information from falling into the hands of a hacker in a form easily legible. Encryption allows for only two people to understand the message being sent, the person who sent the message and the person expected to receive the message. The great Julius Caesar created his own form of encryption known as the Caesar Cipher. While his cipher or encryption technique was primitive compared to today's encryption techniques, this is one of the first documented cases of encryption being used to protect information transported from one location to another. The Caesar Cipher was first put into practice during the Gallic Wars. Julius was struggling to contact Cicero, who was under heavy attack and on the verge of surrendering his position. Caesar was able to have a message delivered to Cicero that stated help was on the way and not to surrender. The technique employed within the cipher was a simple three-letter shift of the Roman alphabet. So a simple message likeHold On? would be encrypted asKrog Rq?. Now without knowing the key (the fact that it is a three letter shift down the alphabet) it would be quite difficult to decipher the message without extensive exploration into the message. The full potential of a simple Caesar...