Stem in Current Events Information Technology

S T E M I N C U R R E N T E V E N T S

used by Julius Caesar, simply shifted letters to the right or left by

a predetermined number, so that “A” became “D” and “F” became

“I,” for example. InWorldWar II, the Germans used the Enigma

machine to keep data secret from the Allies, and it took a group

of mathematical code-breakers to figure out the Enigma’s algo-

rithm.Today, encryption is part of the daily fabric of information

technology, particularly when it comes to Internet security.

Advanced Encryption Standard, also known as AES, is a small

variation on Rijndael, a highly advanced encryption algorithm

created by Belgian cryptographers Vincent Rijmen and Joan

of October 2000, it became the standard encryption

method used by the U.S. government to protect vital national se-

crets.Essentially,AES uses high-level mathematics to break apart

transmitted data into numerous pieces that are later reassem-

bled by a code key. It’s as if someone took “Caesar’s Cipher” and

applied a mathematical formula that made the transposition of

letters and numbers infinitelymore complicated.Without access

to a key, data encrypted by AES is nearly impossible to access.

You can think about encryption methods like a safe; documents

are placed inside and cannot be read unless the safe is opened,

either by a key or a combination lock.However, keys and locks are

not always secure—cryptographic methods must always evolve

to remain effective. Hackers and cybercriminals are constantly

looking for weaknesses in encryption systems.

One of the problems with encrypted data is that it cannot be

processed or analyzed until it is decrypted—taken out of the

“safe”—but providing someone with the key allows them access

to all of the data in the document. This can create privacy and