What is "military grade encryption"?

Many companies use the term “military-grade encryption” for the purpose of protecting their data. You might even think that if it's good enough for the military, it must be the best for everyone, it turns out that in any case it doesn't work that way.

“Military grade encryption” is more related to a marketing term that does not have a specific meaning. If you want to know more about security, we invite you to read our article on password manager security . You will find a lot of information there.

Encryption Basics to Understand "Military Grade Encryption"

You must first understand the basics of encryption in order to learn and understand what “military grade encryption” is. Encryption is basically a way to take information and encode it. This is why it is somewhat confusing. This information should be encrypted, but only if you are aware of it will you understand what it is.

The method of encryption and decryption is known as "encryption" and is usually based on information called a "key".

An example of this is when you visit a website encrypted with HTTPS and want to log in with a password or need to issue a credit card number. This private data must be sent over the Internet in an encrypted manner. It will be your computer and the website you visited that will know and understand this information.

This does not allow anyone to not know your password or your credit card number. For what, when you reconnect with your browser and the website, they will do a "handshake" and be able to exchange secrets which are used for the encryption and decryption of all data.

There are a large number of different encryption algorithms. Some are safer and some are harder to crack.

When you change the standard encryption mark

Whether you log into your online banking, you need to use a virtual private network or what is called a VPN, this allows you to encrypt the files on your hard drive or store your passwords in a safe. secured. Obviously, if you want stronger encryption, it's a lot harder to crack.

To make you comfortable and as secure as possible, many of these services promote “military-grade encryption” on websites and in advertisements.

This claim sounds pretty strong and combat tested, but the military doesn't actually use something called “military grade encryption”. It's a phrase created by those who work in marketing. The companies just say that “the military uses it for certain things”.

What does military-grade encryption mean?

This is a password manager, in which "military-grade encryption" has been reported, as experts explain its meaning. Where it is mentioned that military grade encryption represents AES-256 encryption. It is nothing more than the advanced encryption standard with a key size of 256 bits.

As mentioned, AES-256 is “open and publicly accessible encryption that has been approved by the National Security Agency to protect information at a certain level.”

AES-256 is different from AES-128 and AES-192 because it has a much larger key size. Which means it has a bit more processing power used to perform the encryption and decryption. However, all of this extra work should make AES-256 even more difficult to decipher.

Bank encryption works under the same conditions

Another concept widely used in marketing is “bank encryption”. It's basically the same and the vast majority use it in different banks. Some banks even advertised “military grade encryption”.

Because it is good general purpose encryption, it is considered the best option besides being the most secure. “Military Grade Encryption” and “Bank Grade Encryption” must have the same name because they are so similar.

The use of AES-256 and AES-128 in the different software

AES-256 has been widely adopted by various services and software developers. In fact, you may be using military-grade encryption at all times. You just don't know it, because the vast majority of services don't even mention it as "military grade encryption."

Nowadays, many modern browsers use this encryption when communicating with each other. So there is a huge possibility that you have used it without knowing it.

The same goes for BitLocker encryption built into Windows. Which uses AES-128 by default, but it could also be configured to use AES-256. It is not a "military rank" by default, but the AES-128 is still much more secure and resistant to attack and acts like a military rank.

Whether you are using AES-256, AES-128, or AES-192, you need to have strong enough encryption. You can be “military grade”, it's actually a coined term, but that doesn't mean it's the safest on the market, nor that it was coined by the military.