What is military-grade encryption?

Military-grade encryption is a term you can notice in cybersecurity, data privacy, and password-related articles. What does it mean?

What does this term mean? Do only military and government entities use this encryption method? Why should you be familiar with something of military grade?

Military-grade encryption refers to AES-256.

Encryption is a process when a piece of data (f.e., a password) is translated into a ciphertext – a sequence of random numbers, letters, and symbols. Read more about the concept and its benefits here.

Military-grade encryption refers to a specific encryption type – AES (Advanced Encryption Standard, or Rijndael) algorithm. This encryption method was established in 2001 by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Two Belgian cryptographers proposed a new symmetric-key block cipher that utilizes 256-bit keys. The U.S. government announced AES as a new standard, changing the previously used 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES).

Today, most cybersecurity service providers utilize military-grade encryption. In other words, they use a block cipher that supports block sizes of 128-bits and greater to protect data.

Why is this encryption called military grade?

When the AES superseded the DES encryption algorithm, it became a widely accepted standard to protect government information. Consequently, AES-128 was used for unclassified information and AES-256 for protecting secret, critically sensitive governmental information.

AES is named military-grade because it is the most reliable currently-existing way to protect top-secret data, government, bank, and military included. Although there were many attempts, it has not been cracked. If encryption is implemented correctly, nobody should be able to succeed.

You might also hear alternative ways of calling AES: banking-grade, government-grade, or industry-standard encryption. All these synonyms refer to the same encryption method: AES-128 or AES-256.

Your data is probably protected with AES-256 too.

Governments, banks, and the military are not the only entities that use AES-256 to protect their data. Many security-oriented tools utilize military-grade encryption too. For instance, if you store your passwords in a password manager (and you should), ensure the software uses this encryption method.

The same applies to all sensitive, private data. Any tool or service that has direct access to your sensitive data (passwords, files, logins, IPs, etc.) should use AES.

For instance, today, AES-256 is widely used in:

• password managers (such as PassCamp);
• cloud service providers (such as Google Cloud, iCloud);
• VPN service providers;
• financial service providers;
• messaging programs (such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp);
• others.

Do you need AES-256 for your data protection?

If you care about your data privacy and safety, the short answer is yes. You need military-grade encryption for the ultimate protection of your data.

Protecting sensitive data with the most reliable encryption method out there should be a rule, not an exception. No platform, industry, app, or service provider is immune to ever-growing cyber threats and data breaches. The one thing that can help you increase defense efficiency against cyber threats is encryption.

Therefore, as a business owner provider, you should definitely exploit the best ways to protect your clients’ data. As an individual, always choose the tools that use military-grade encryption to defend your data from unauthorized access, leak, or reveal.