Encryption today

The invention of computers led to great leaps in encryption. The first state-of-the-art encryption method was the Data Encryption Standard (DES), invented in 1979. The encryption algorithm was celebrated as the unbreakable 56-bit encryption and not even the most capable supercomputers were able to break it through brute force. It was estimated by its inventors that the computers would take at least 20 years in order to break a ciphertext made using DES. However, advances in computing and particularly the processing power led to DES being broken twice in a short period of time. In 1998 and 1999, DES was broken in 56 and 22 hours respectively, instead of the estimated 20 years. From then, there was a need to replace DES, and AES was then created after the public was invited to participate in a competition to build a secure encryption algorithm. 15 proposals were...