All of the encryption software I'm discussing today, however, is available globally, and is just as powerful outside of the US as within it. Put most simply, encryption is the process of encoding a document in a such a way that it can't be read or understood without the decryption key. There are lots of good reasons to want to use encryption. You may want to keep business files confidential. You may be carrying on a private conversation in e-mail that you don't want other people to read.
Encryption is at the heart of the growing Internet economy.
The server software knows how to unscramble that message, but anyone who may be listening along the way will simply see a string of garbled numbers and letters. For the most part, conducting business on the net is safer than giving your credit card to a waiter or sales clerk. But the level of encryption in a typical web browser isn't sufficient for some people. The more bits in the key length, the harder the key is to crack. Generally speaking, each additional bit makes the key twice as hard to break.