Encrypting since 2000 B.C.

Feeling that communication has become a bit complex lately? Wait until you try to decipher Phaistos disc! Discovered in 1908 in the island of Crete, Greece, and dated possibly to the Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium BC), this famous disc of fired clay is bearing a spiral text in an unknown script and language. Countless attempts at decipherment have been made by professional paleographers, but the code behind the disc’s signs remains a mystery. The only obvious thing regarding the Phaistos disc, is that the discovery and application of the reading of encrypted communications has altered the history’s course: The Zimmermann Telegram triggered the United States’ entry into World War I; and Allies reading of Nazi Germany’s ciphers shortened World War II. Encryption in modern times is achieved by using algorithms that have a key to encrypt and decrypt information. These keys convert the messages and data into “digital gibberish” through encryption and then return them to the original form through decryption. Additionally, the creation of a new protocol known as the Secure Socket Layer, or SSL, led the way for online transactions to take place. No wonder Greeks were, and still are, innovative!

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