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Data Encryption Process

Encryption: A process of encoding data to prevent unauthorized viewing or modifying it.If you are not a paranoid, maybe now it can be changed. When you use a PC, a lot of bad guys who can intercept your e-mail you send, and your coworkers can read documents from the project that you are doing to benefit their careers. There is a technology that can protect your data from a spy who always wanted to peek, encryption. Encryption is a process of data encoding or decoding data that can be read only when we have a special key. Once encryption is only growing in the world of espionage / war, but now the technology has penetrated into the business sector and among home users: Encryption is the best tool to protect data, privacy, and your secret. You need to know about encryption:º Prevent unwanted access to documents and e-mail message.º High Level encryption is difficult to be dismantled.º Changes in the export regulations of cryptography technology will boost sales of encryption software.An encryption program, be it a stand alone (stand-alone) or already contained in the application of e-mail client, have the same process: data through a mathematical formula called an algorithm, which converts it into encrypted data called ciphertext. This formula requires a variable from you - the so-called key - to restore the data back to the original shape, making it very difficult, even almost impossible, one could break the encryption code. But of course this does not apply if the person has managed to steal the encryption code from you. So, be careful with the encryption code that you have.
There are two types of encryption: symmetric and asymmetric (also called public key). With symmetric encryption, you run a file through the program and create a key that scrambles the file. Then you send encrypted files via e-mail to the recipient and separately transmit the decoding key (could be a password or other data file). The recipient, by running the same encryption application, using a key that you provided to reunite the file has been encrypted. Symmetric encryption is very easy and very fast in use, but not as safe as asymmetric encryption, because someone could intercept the key and decode the messages. But because of its speed, it is commonly used in e-commerce transactions.
Asymmetric encryption is complex - but much safer. Required two related keys: a public key and a private key. You make your public key available to anyone who wants to send you encrypted information. The key can only be mengenkoding data; he can not mendekodingnya. Your private key stays safe with you. When people wish to send you encrypted information, they encrypt it using your public key. When you receive the ciphertext, you decrypt it using your private key. Asymmetric encryption added level of security on your data, but the price: More computation is required, so the process is very long and longer.
Symmetric and asymmetric encryption uses two different algorithms to produce ciphertext. In symmetric encryption, the algorithm divvies up data into small chunks called blocks. Then he switches letters, change the information in each block into numbers, compresses and expands the data, and then run it through mathematical formulas that include the key. Then the algorithm repeats the process, sometimes dozens of times. In asymmetric encryption algorithm, treating the text as a very large number, continue to multiply a larger number, and then calculates the remainder after dividing by the largest number of other third. Finally, the remainder number is converted back into text. Encryption programs can use the same algorithms differently, which is why the recipients of the encrypted information must have the same program with the sender to mengenkoding data they receive.
Keys are the final piece in the puzzle of encryption, this key varying kind in terms of length and strength. Reason: the longer the key, the greater the number of combinations of numbers that arise. For example, if your encryption program using 128-bit key, then your key may be any of more than 3.4 trillion billion billion billion combinations - or 2 to the power 128 - possible combinations of zeros and ones. A cracker may have better luck getting the lottery than he should break the encryption using brutal methods (brute-force method of trying to guess the combination of keys one by one to find the correct key). For comparison, an encryption expert to use this brutal method can decode 40-bit symmetric encryption within 6 hours using a regular PC at home. Even so, 128-bit encryption still has some drawbacks; professionals have sophisticated techniques that can help them solve the most difficult code once.Stow in the Night
Encryption technology developed in the military ever since the year 479 before Christ: according to the historian Herodotus, the leader of Sparta write a secret message on a wooden tablet which is then coated with wax as they fought to resist the invasion of Persia. Experts in corporate information systems have long used this encryption technique. But home users who use this encryption tool is also increasing, aside whether they know it or not.
For example, Microsoft's browser Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator has a built-in encryption tool for e-commerce transactions. Without input from the wearer, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a symmetric encryption protocol, will randomize the credit card numbers as they walked from the user's PC to the server of e-commerce Web sites are. By default, browsers that are currently providing 40-bit encryption, but you can retrieve the newest version that supports 128-bit encryption level.
You can be more pro-active in terms of protecting the data in your possession. The e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook Express and Lotus Notes, a tool that can encrypt mail users, although not many people who use it. S / MIME requires a certificate (a digital identification which is housed in an e-mail client), you should buy from companies such as VeriSign for U.S. $ 15 per year.
For additional protection, stand-alone utility can encrypt more than just e-mail messages, such as binary images / digital, documents and folders that exist on your hard drive. PGP for Personal Privacy is currently the most popular version for this type of program; you can download a free version for personal use.
Analysts expect an increase in the use of strong encryption tools thanks to a change of cryptography export regulations by the U.S. Department of Commerce recently. Prior to January 13, 2000, most encryption programs categorized as ammunition, and subject to the same regulations imposed on the grenade and rocket destroyer. You can not export encryption software with keys that are stronger than 40-bit, and if broken you can dikenail high penalty fines or jail for a long time.
With the new law, the Commerce Department to allow some high-tech encryption exported outside the U.S.. Analysts said that the regulations are far-fetched because most of the encryption application is made outside the U.S. and import of such software is now legal. American software company is now able to take advantage of these regulations, and do not need to create an encryption program outside of their country again.