Stem in Current Events Information Technology

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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 Daeman.As 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