National Security: At What Price Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Ess

National Security: At What Price Never has information played a more important role in society than it does today. The advent of the Internet has made the distribution and collection of information easier and faster than ever before. Today, the Internet is used for communications, shopping, management, and even financial transactions. Despite the slowing economy, recent years have seen a large increase in Internet usage by corporations, and research indicates that this trend will likely continue. Figures gathered by eMarketeer indicate that Internet based commerce will reach as high as $2.4 trillion by 2004 (B2B). With easy access to information from anywhere on the globe, safeguards must be taken to protect sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands. These measures include passwords, protected networks, and secure connections. While much has been accomplished in the area of network security, data encryption remains the most fundamental layer of protection. The goal of data encryption (or cryptography) is to render information unreadable to all except an authorized user (one who knows the password, also called the key). While there are many encryption algorithms and techniques, most involve the use of a "private key" which is the mathematical value that decodes the information. Without the key, a hacker has a chance of one in several trillion to correctly decode the information, making encryption a very effective method of data protection. While encryption fills a critical role in personal and corporate security, the technology can also be used by criminal and terrorist organizations. The same systems that protect your credit card number online can also be used to organize covert operations in safety.... ... Wired News. March 31, 2002 <http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,46816,00.html>. McCullagh, Declan. Senator Backs Off Backdoors. October 17, 2001. Wired News. March 31, 2002 <http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,47635,00.html>. Quotations. n.d. FreedomWriter.com. March 31, 2002 <http://www.freedomwriter.com /quotes.htm>. Schwartz, John. "Disputes on Electronic Message Encryption Take On New Urgency." September 25, 2001. The New York Times Company. February 28, 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/technology/25CODE.html?pagewanted=print>. U.S. Encryption Policy. February 28, 2002. Center for Democracy and Technology. February 28, 2002 <http://www.cdt.org/crypto/admin/>. U.S. Policy on Encryption Should Protect Our Right to Privacy. n.d. Americans for Computer Privacy. February 28, 2002 <http://www.computerprivacy.org/about/>.