Help for school project

Hi all,



I got asked by a 16 year old student at a secondary school in scotland for help on her project. I found 10 mins in my day to help out quickly. Anyone else care to pitch in? I think she got hold on my e-mail address through our website







-----Original Message-----

From: stewae8 [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 04 April 2003 14:07

To: Richard Lack

Subject: encryption





I am doing an assessment for a subject I have choosen called Information

Systems. I have been asked to answer the question : How is encryption is

linked to the Internet?



Please send me a reply whenever possible.



Yours faithfully

Emma Stewart



____________



Emma,



I'm very busy right now but here's a brief answer for you:



Encryption is a way of getting round one of the biggest problems of the internet: Security.



Imagine if you sent me a letter by post and it got to my end and I could see that somebody had torn open the envelope and peeked inside. I'd know that the postman, or my wife , or perhaps somebody else I didn't know had looked at it and read the private contents of that letter. I'd be really concerned about that and I'd want to know who'd been reading my post! In the old days this used to happen a lot and so people put red-wax seals over letters to make sure that nobody could open them without the recipient knowing..



Before encryption we had the same problem on the internet - except if you sent me an e-mail it wasn't the post office that was responsible for it. I'd be happy if they DID deliver e-mail for us because I TRUST the Post Office. Instead - your e-mail is delivered by tens of thousands of different internet service providers (ISP's). You have no idea who owns these ISP's and whether you trust them or not. Some of them are quite easy to break into and steal from. If someone takes a sneak-peak at your e-mail it would arrive in your inbox and there would be no way for you to know if it had been opened and by whom. There's no such thing as a rip or a tear in an e-mail. What makes things worse is that in most countries the government has the ability to read our e-mail by placing special equipment next to the computers that deliver our e-mails in the ISP's building. Some countries (e.g. UK and America) only do this for suspicious e-mail that they think might have come from terrorists. Other countries (e.g. China) have a policy of monitoring all e-mail going in an out of that country.



Encryption was developed by a couple of guys that went on to found a massive company called RSA Security. Here's how it works:



When you send me an encrypted e-mail it's scrambled up using a special code (called the key). There are two types of encryption key - 128bit and 256bit. Both types of code are so tough to crack that it would take even the most powerful computer many thousands of years to work out. The only other person that can come up with the code is the one whoI am sending the e-mail to. It's a bit like sending a padlock to somebody by post. The only person who can unlock the padlock is the person who you are sending it to at the other end because you gave them the same key that you have.





One final word:



Encryption is a good thing and a bad thing. It allows me to do things like pay for things securely on websites. I can send my friends and work colleagues private files and not worry about them being read. On the other hand it also allows criminals and terrorists to talk to each other without being found out by the police and the government. That's why some countries (e.g. America) have outlawed the use of encryption technology for e-mail)





So - it's all about Security and Trust. Whenever you try to solve problems involving security and trust you also have to think about privacy. Are my e-mails private? Should the government be able to read them?





I hope this helps Emma.