Digital Encryption (CTP2)

is an advance in Call to Power II.
==Gameplay==
Digital encryption makes the transfer of data from computer to computer safer. Highly advanced digital encryption make the Wonder possible, and gives the host empire the economic benefits of hosting sensitive data outside the bounds of international laws.
== Great Library entry ==
Manual encryption, the process of disguising information or data to render it unintelligible to an unauthorized person, was used as early as Roman times. With the explosion of computing technology in the mid-20th century, cryptologists began to develop exponentially more sophisticated digital encryption schemes to encode sensitive communications during World War II. Computers encrypted data by applying an algorithm - a set of procedures or instructions for performing a specified task - to a section of data. The transmitter of the message and the intended recipient only knows the encryption key. In this way, any intercepted communications or unauthorized access merely uncovers useless strings of data.
In the late 1970s, there were two encryption types: symmetric encryption, which required the same key for both encryption and decryption, and asymmetric encryption, also known as public-key cryptography, which required a different key for both encryption and decryption. Asymmetric encryption enables the transfer of disguised data between allied parties at separate locations without having to transfer the unencrypted key. The chief advantage of these more complex encryption schemes was their impregnability. Even with a computer attempting 10,000 keys per second, a 10-character key derived from the 256 standard ASCII characters would take about 40 billion centuries to complete.
However, as the power and speed of microprocessors increased in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, previously impregnable encryption schemes were being cracked with the brute force assistance of raw processor power. Businesses and government entities sunk millions of dollars into cryptography schemes that could guarantee the security of sensitive information over the Internet, such as financial transactions, medical records and government documents. With the creation of the first data haven, the world had its first truly secure information facility. Employing state-of-the-art asymmetric encryption schemes with superior physically secure server facilities, any kind of data or transaction could find a home far from the threat of government snoops, crackers or law enforcement.