The Evolution of Encryption
1976 CE - America
Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman publish their asymmetric key system to the public. An asymetric key is different because it allows two users to communicate securely without having access to a shared secret key. For example, the public key acts as a key to lock a lock, and the private key can only unlock it. The two keys are related mathematically, and breaking one should not affect the other. This directly led to modern day encryption methods.
This interactive media project was created by students for educational purposes at The Art Institute of Atlanta and is in no way intended for commercial gain or as a source of public information.