Military Grade Encryption

[Ferdinando Addison]

TwoBelgian cryptographers proposed a new symmetric-key block cipher that utilizes 256-bit keys. The U.S. government announced AES as a new standard, changing the previously used 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES).

When the AES superseded the DES encryption algorithm, it became a widely accepted standard to protect government information. Consequently, AES-128 was used for unclassified information and AES-256 for protecting secret, critically sensitive governmental information.

AES is named military-grade because it is the most reliable currently-existing way to protect top-secret data, government, bank, and military included. Although there were many attempts, it has not been cracked. If encryption is implemented correctly, nobody should be able to succeed.

Governments, banks, and the military are not the only entities that use AES-256 to protect their data. Many security-oriented tools utilize military-grade encryption too. For instance, if you store your passwords in a password manager (and you should), ensure the software uses this encryption method.

Protecting sensitive data with the most reliable encryption method out there should be a rule, not an exception. No platform, industry, app, or service provider is immune to ever-growing cyber threats and data breaches. The one thing that can help you increase defense efficiency against cyber threats is encryption.

Military grade encryption is a type of data security that uses advanced algorithms to protect confidential information. It usually involves encrypting sensitive data using high-level cryptographic tools and techniques. It enables users to encrypt their files and communications with an extremely high level of strength.

Military grade encryption often refers to a specific encryption type, AES-256 (Advanced Encryption Standard). Currently, the U.S. government has named this algorithm the standard for encryption and most cybersecurity organizations today use this form of military grade encryption. However, other types of encryption are also considered military grade.

Organizations may need military grade encryption depending on the privacy requirements required for their applications, data stored in databases or transmitted via networks, or other sensitive tasks where confidentiality is necessary. Data that has been encrypted using AES can take decades for even the most advanced computers to break into.

For this reason, with military grade encryption, organizations can be confident that their data will remain safe from unauthorized access or tampering by external parties. In addition, AES makes it so that only authorized personnel can access the data in its original form.

WinZip Enterprise features a complete set of tools to manage and secure files with military-grade AES encryption, so you can be sure that the sensitive data within your organization is safe and secure. Military grade encryption is an essential component of WinZip Enterprise because it provides maximum security against malicious actors and attacks.

Essentially, military grade encryption works by scrambling data into a mathematical algorithm and then encrypting it with a key. The key is generated using an advanced form of cryptography called public-key cryptography.

This cryptography utilizes two different keys to secure the data. The first key is kept private and known only to the sender and receiver. The other is publicly available so that anyone can send encrypted messages to them. The public key enables secure communication between two parties without revealing any sensitive personal information.

The complexity and sophistication of the encryption make these algorithms military grade. Put simply, these algorithms break down large amounts of data into smaller chunks and encrypt each piece separately.

Then, they combine them together so that it becomes nearly impossible for an outsider to decode without knowing the specific key used for encryption. Furthermore, many military grade encryption systems use additional layers of protection, such as:

The Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 (FIPS 140-2) is a standard of cryptography that certifies algorithms as military grade. Entities working under the FIPS must comply with their standards in order to work with federal government organizations that store, collect, transfer, and share sensitive data.

The standard in place by the FIPS are essentially a group of guidelines endorsed by the government for organizations to adhere to when producing or purchasing tech products or services. There are several categories of FIPS standards, including, but not limited to, the following:

Failing to comply with FIPS can have significant financial and reputational consequences for an organization. Depending on the severity of the offense and how long it has been since an entity broke the rules, organizations may also be subject to civil or criminal penalties. Additionally, government agencies may audit organizations that do not follow the regulations and be subject to fines.

The certified FIPS algorithms have strong security measures compared to commercial cryptography. This is due to their sophisticated mathematical structure, which makes them nearly impossible to break using cyber-attacks.

Essentially, military grade encryption should be used whenever extremely valuable or confidential information needs protection from potential attackers. By utilizing advanced algorithms, encryption can effectively keep sensitive files safe and secure no matter what the circumstances.

Learn how your organization can gain control of file security in any scenario with WinZip Enterprise. Featuring a complete set of tools to manage and secure files with military-grade AES encryption, WinZip Enterprise enables security-first companies and government agencies worldwide to share and control information across major business platforms.

WinZip Enterprise shares and stores files securely using an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) format, which is a FIPS 140-2 complaint algorithm. As part of the compliance process, WinZip Enterprise uses FIPS-enabled computers to ensure files are protected in transit and at rest.

Many companies tout "military-grade encryption" to protect your data. If it's good enough for the military, it must be the best---right? Well, kind of. "Military-grade encryption" is more of a marketing term that doesn't have a precise meaning.

Let's start with the basics. Encryption is, essentially, a way to take information and scramble it, so it looks like gibberish. You can then decrypt that encrypted information---but only if you know how. The method of encrypting and decrypting is known as a "cipher," and it usually relies on a piece of information known as a "key."

For example, when you visit a website encrypted with HTTPS and sign in with a password or provide a credit card number, that private data is sent over the internet in a scrambled (encrypted) form. Only your computer and the website you're communicating with can understand it, which prevents people from snooping on your password or credit card number. When you first connect, your browser and the website perform a "handshake" and exchange secrets that are used for encryption and decryption of the data.

Whether you're logging into your online banking, using a virtual private network (VPN), encrypting the files on your hard drive, or storing your passwords in a secure vault, you obviously want stronger encryption that's harder to crack.

It sounds strong and battle-tested, but the military doesn't actually define something called "military-grade encryption." That's a phrase dreamt up by marketing people. By advertising encryption as "military-grade," companies are just saying that "the military uses it for some things."

Dashlane, a password manager that has advertised its "military-grade encryption," explains what this term means on its blog. According to Dashlane, military-grade encryption means AES-256 encryption. That's the Advanced Encryption Standard with a 256-bit key size.

AES-256 differs from AES-128 and AES-192 by having a larger key size. That means a bit more processing power used for performing the encryption and decryption, but all that extra work should make AES-256 even harder to crack.

"Bank-level encryption" is another term that's thrown around a lot in marketing. It's basically the same thing: AES-256 or perhaps AES-128, as most banks use those. In fact, some banks advertise their "military-grade encryption."

This is good encryption in widespread use. It's often considered the best, most secure option. Timothy Quinn writes that both "military-grade encryption" and "banking-grade encryption" should just be called "industry-standard encryption."

AES-256 has been adopted widely by many services and many pieces of software. In fact, you're likely using this "military-grade encryption" all the time. You just don't know it because most services don't even call it "military-grade encryption."

For example, modern web browsers support AES-256 when communicating with secure HTTPS websites. We use "modern" very loosely here---even Internet Explorer got AES-256 support with Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Vista. Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, of course, support it, too. You're probably connecting to all kinds of websites that use "military-grade encryption" without knowing it.

The built-in BitLocker encryption on Windows uses AES-128 by default but can be configured to use AES-256. It's not "military-grade" by default, but AES-128 should still be very secure and resistant to attack---and it can be military-grade.

Password manager 1Password made the switch back to AES-256 from AES-128 back in 2013. 1Password's Jeffrey Goldberg explained the company's rationale at the time. He argued that AES-128 was basically as secure, but many people felt more secure with that larger number and that "military-grade encryption."

Cryptography has been an important part of warfare for a long time. It's a way a military can securely transmit messages without its enemies intercepting the messages. Even if the enemy intercepts the message, it must decrypt the message, so it's actually useful. The ancient Romans were using ciphers to disguise messages two thousand years ago under Julius Caesar. In World War II, Nazi Germany employed the Enigma machine to encode its messages. This was famously cracked by Britan and its allies, who used the information gleaned from those encrypted messages to help win the war.

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