Question

Read the excerpt from The Code Book.

However, the success of the Information Age depends on the ability to protect information as it flows around the world, and this relies on the power of cryptography. Encryption can be seen as providing the locks and keys of the Information Age. For two thousand years encryption has been of importance only to governments and the military, but today it also has a role to play in facilitating business, and tomorrow ordinary people will rely on cryptography in order to protect their privacy. Fortunately, just as the Information Age is taking off, we have access to extraordinarily strong encryption. The development of public key cryptography, particularly the RSA cipher, has given today's cryptographers a clear advantage in their continual power struggle against cryptanalysts, and RSA encryption is therefore effectively unbreakable. Most important of all, public key cryptography is not weakened by any key distribution problems. In short, RSA guarantees almost unbreakable locks for our most precious pieces of information.

To improve understanding of the excerpt, which questions are best to ask? Select 5 options.

What does “encryption” mean?
What is “public key cryptography”?
What kind of encryption was available a long time ago?
What are “key distribution problems”?
Where can I buy an RSA cipher?
What are “cryptanalysts”?

Answer 1

Choose these five:

- What does “encryption” mean?
- What is “public key cryptography”?
- What kind of encryption was available a long time ago?
- What are “key distribution problems”?
- What are “cryptanalysts”?

Reason: these clarify the technical and historical terms used in the excerpt. "Where can I buy an RSA cipher?" is not relevant to understanding the passage.