The United States Government argues that without proper regulation of encryption, national security is threatened.

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        As the medium for communication has transitioned from traditional to digital means, cryptography has transpired into a controversial issue.  Recent terrorist attacks have sparked a mass array of political activism in many forms in a plea to prevent future tragedies from occurring.  Heightened sensitivity furthermore has emitted strengthened political regulation in the form of national security.  Recent Senate initiatives involving cryptography have reiterated both sides of the ethical debate.  

        No compromise currently exists in which cryptography can be safely be regulated while ceasing to overstep the boundaries outlined by the United States constitution.  One side of the issue derives the interest of national security.  The United States Government argues that without proper regulation of encryption, national security is threatened.  On the other side, the rights of privacy are at stake.  Advocates argue that Governmental regulation would open a new venue for invasion of personal privacy.

        Within Cryptology exists the         the study of the encryption and decryption of data.  Plaintext is the original document that is stored or transmitted via a computer.  Ciphertext is the actual encrypted document.  Encryption transfers the plaintext into ciphertext, whereas decryption performs the reverse operation.   During the encoding, plaintext is combined with “keys” which are numbers or strings of characters known only to the sender and recipient. Ciphertext uses these “keys” to convert the data back into its original form.  

        Encryption is an essential part of electronic communication in this day and era.  Cryptography ranges in use from the National Government right down to the individual online shopper.  Encryption is used on sites that obtain confidential personal information from the end user.  Online transactions involving credit card and social security numbers are directly secured within web servers via encryption.  In the same mode the United States government uses encryption to secure much of its classified information.  Although these advantages are significantly vital to electronic commerce, the disadvantages portray critical breaches of governmental security.  Information sent between hackers, terrorists, and various underground illegal organizations that cannot be decrypted by U.S. intelligence agencies threaten our national security.

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        Under multiple precedents the United States government has made a firm argument in favor of regulating Cryptography.  Organized crime involving cryptography has continually stifled U.S. intelligence agencies.  Cryptographic schemes used in forms of illegality continually distress the United States Government.  As a result many officials want “backdoors” to be put into place in order to protect National Security.

        Data Encryption Standard (DES) has been the United States encryption standard since 1977. Derived from a 56-bit single-key encryption basis, DES exportation has been regulated by the U.S. Government and is allowed only on sensitive governmental data.  DES was further regulated by ...

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