In the world of electronic commerce, you either have to be very trusting or very foolish. When you buy a holiday or CD online, how do you know the website you send your credit card details to won't abuse it? And when you use a card to withdraw cash, how do you know someone hasn't put a wiretap on the ATM machine in order to learn customers' PINs or clone their cards ? In many cases, you can reassure yourself that your transactions are protected by encryption, mathematical tricks that make your information indecipherable to anybody who isn't supposed to see it. Encryption is to data what a good, strong padlock is to a cash box: it's supposed to be your strongest point of defence. It lets you take your data out in public without having to trust the rest of the world to keep their hands off.
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