   Encryption
  One simple question...What does it mean when someone talks about using n-bit encryptions.  I.E. when someone says, "I use 128-bit encryption on my website," what does that mean?  Does it mean that the key used to encrypt the data is 128 bits long?Thanks,Russell  
  Yeah, that''s completely correct. Mostly they use SSL or TLS.  ;  Perhaps I am wrong, but 128-bit encryption doesn''t seem that secure if 128 is the length of the key in bits.  It seems like an expert in cryptography or a skilled hacker could hack that, since repetition in any encrypted text allows for breaking down the decryption process into a frequency analysis problem.  If you are sending an email that has substantial length to it, then it seems like there would be many strings of 128-bits to apply frequency analysis to, which could be cracked by someone who knows what they are doing.I am, of course, working on the basis that 100% security is a key that is the same length as the data, and the key being completely random.  ;  It depends on what encryption algorithm you use. If you for example use an Elliptic Curve Function 128 Bit are damned secure and at the moment quite uncrackable.  ;  Well, for communication with web sites, the most common entryption algorithm is RC4.  The interesting thing about RC4, which avoids the problem Russel mentions, is that every character encoded mutates the key.  So the repeat length on the encryption character stream is FAR greater than the bit length of the key.  