Encryption means that all information relating to you and your account is scrambled and locked with a mathematical key during the electronic transfer.   Most browsers have an icon such as a key   or a lock   to represent an encrypted mode or session.   A broken key  , open lock  , or no lock indicates that the session or mode is not encrypted.

There are two different types of encryption- domestic-grade encryption and international-grade encryption. The difference between these two types of encryption is one of capability. Domestic-grade encryption is exponentially more powerful than international-grade encryption:

• 40-bit encryption, also called international-grade encryption, means there are 2⁴⁰ possible keys that could fit into the lock that holds your account information. That means there are many billions (a 1 followed by 12 zeroes) of possible keys.
  
   

• 128-bit encryption, also called domestic-grade encryption, means there are 2⁸⁸ (a three followed by 26 zeroes) times as many key combinations than there are for 40-bit encryption. That means a computer would require exponentially more processing power than for 40-bit encryption to find the correct key.
  
   

• Key length determines how difficult it is to reveal the encrypted data. For example, very fast computers can crack a 40-bit code in less than an hour. Using current computing technology, a 128-bit code could be cracked in roughly one billion billion millennia. Suffice to say, by the time the code is cracked, human beings will not exist anymore, most likely the universe will not exist either. Your bank records will remain safe.

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