The Securius Newsletter Cool security stuff. Traditionally, it's been used to guarantee military and diplomatic secrets. More recently, encryption has been deployed to protect information in all kinds of settings, from electronic funds transfers to ecommerce transactions.
Encryption is necessary due to the lack of trust.
While it's clear why two countries at war might not trust one another, all too often this lack of trust applies to a variety of professional and personal situations. Companies have to be alert not to lose trade secrets to competitors. An individual might need to worry that someone is snooping around in his or her computer data. In many ways, widespread Internet connectivity has made the widespread deployment of encryption technologies necessary. If you're transmitting a confidential file to a colleague at a remote site, the file needs to be protected.