The excerpt from 'The Code Book' is:
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.
Answer:
- 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"?
Explanation:
'Asking questions' is characterized as one of the effective techniques for better comprehension as it allows the readers to involve themselves completely and think clearly, monitor the key ideas elaborated, the purpose of the text, develop associations between the ideas, predict upcoming events better, and understand it effectively.
In the given excerpt, asking the above questions like 'meaning of encryption,' 'public key cryptography,' 'type of encryption used previously,' etc. would not only assists one in finding out the meaning of the text but also in promoting their thinking, as well as, observing their understanding. This will further allow them understand the author's purpose and relate to it.
