VPN services frequently use the phrase “military-grade encryption,” and occasionally you can find it mentioned on bank portals as well. Although military-grade encryption appears secure, few people are aware of its complexity. Consequently, we provide you with a thorough explanation of military-grade encryption in this post. Is it a method of secure communication used by the military or is it merely a marketing ploy? Let’s go over the article point by point to find all the answers.
Everything About Military-Grade Encryption
Here, we’ve listed every section that this article has covered. To quickly navigate to the appropriate section, click the link below. Rest assured that we have explained encryption in simple terms so that anyone may grasp what it means.
The Basics
Let’s first go through the fundamentals of encryption before we can fully comprehend what military-grade encryption is. Encryption, to put it simply, is the process of scrambling data such that it resembles gibberish. The data is encrypted when you enter your credit card information on a website. That indicates that it uses sophisticated cryptographic techniques to transform plaintext into ciphertext. The data becomes unintelligible and uncrackable as a result. Your data is kept secure while being transferred from one server to another over the internet in this way.
Who then is able to interpret the data? Only the thing who is in possession of the cipher’s key. The most crucial component of encryption is the key, and how and where a service provider stores it (we’ll get to that later) makes all the difference. In conclusion, encryption is the process of encoding information into incomprehensible cyphers that are only accessible to people that possess the key.
So What is Military-Grade Encryption?
Simply said, AES-256 encryption qualifies as military-grade encryption. The 256-bit key size of the Advanced Encryption Standard is known as AES. There are several other kinds of encryption, including SHA-256, RSA-2048, and AES-256. Due to its quick and dependable cryptographic technology, AES-256 is one of the most widely used encryption techniques. An AES-128-bit key, much alone an AES-256 encryption key, has never before been cracked by a computer or a person.
Symmetric cryptography, or the use of the same key for encryption and decryption, is what the encryption method AES-256 does. AES cryptography is used by messaging apps, banks, and VPNs because it encrypts and decrypts data quickly.
The difference between the AES 128-bit and 256-bit encryption methods is now discussed. When we refer to anything as having 128-bit encryption, we indicate that the key required to decrypt the data has a 128-bit size and 3.4 × 10 key permutations, which total 39 digits. Similar to the 128-bit key, the 256-bit key has 1.1 x 10 key combinations and is 78 digits long. Any supercomputer would take billions of years to crack the key with such a huge number, which is simply not doable.
To sum up, if a VPN provider claims to offer military-grade encryption, it means that you will receive the unbreakable AES 256-bit encryption. Even 128-bit and 192-bit encryption are regarded as military-grade, but businesses typically offer 256-bit to further strengthen your security.
Is Military-grade Encryption a Marketing Gimmick?
According to several cybersecurity experts, firms use military-grade encryption as a marketing ploy to link internet security to the military’s stringent requirements. It’s somewhat true, in my perspective. Even AES 128-bit encryption, as we saw in the previous section, is sufficiently secure and impossible to crack. In addition, despite what businesses typically claim, AES 256-bit encryption is not a novel or exclusive technology.
Military-grade encryption is supported by even HTTPS websites that you open in a web browser. If the URL has a padlock icon next to it, AES 256-bit encryption is by default enabled. The website and you do not share any of the information exchanged. Even your ISP is unable to spy on the data.
Security experts say that AES 256-bit encryption is more than sufficient in terms of encryption. Instead, users should concentrate on the location of the company’s major storage facility and the transport protocol it employs. End-to-end encryption is useful in this situation. Because you already have military-grade encryption, you shouldn’t just accept it; instead, you should discover where the keys are kept.
The decryption keys for WhatsApp and Signal are kept by the sender and the recipient. Similar to how Zoom previously kept the keys on its server, the keys will now be held by the host and the participants thanks to end-to-end encryption on Zoom. In light of the fact that you currently have military-grade encryption enabled by default on apps, websites, browsers, and online services, all I would advise is to look for end-to-end encryption wherever it is available.
Military-grade Encryption Explained For You
So there’s everything there is to know about the much-touted military-grade encryption that businesses constantly promote. Although it’s a straightforward statement that gives you confidence, you are actually already protected by military-grade encryption by design. There is a good chance that you are browsing the web securely because Google really started deranking websites in 2018 that were still using the outdated HTTP protocol. That’s all we have to say, though. Please leave a comment below to let us know if you found the article to be useful.
