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What is encryption?

In one sentence: Scrambling information so only someone with the right key can unscramble it.

A little more

Encryption mixes information up using a key so that it looks like random noise. With the right key you can turn it back; without it you can't, even with every computer on Earth trying for billions of years. Modern encryption like AES is built so that trying every key is the only way in.

It protects messages while they travel (the padlock in your browser) and files while they sit still (an encrypted phone or laptop), which is also why deleted files on a modern phone can't be dug back up.

See it in action

  1. 4Secret codes: encryption and hashingFrom Caesar's cipher to the AES-256 lock behind every padlock: encrypt and decrypt in your browser, crack a code by brute force, and watch one letter change a SHA-256 fingerprint completely..7 min · interactive
  2. 8Where do deleted files and photos go?Delete a photo, empty the bin, and watch what really happens on a pretend disk: the file is forgotten, not rubbed out.7 min · interactive

Related words

  • End-to-end encryption Locking a message on the sender's device so that only the receiver's device can unlock it, with nobody in between able to read it.
  • Hash A fixed-length fingerprint of some data. One-way: you can't get the data back from it.
  • TLS Transport Layer Security: the technology behind the padlock that encrypts web traffic.
  • HDCP A secret password check that films and TV apps use to make sure every box between the player and the screen is allowed to show them; if one isn't, the film goes black.

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