ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Encryption by date

Okay kiddo, so imagine you have a really important secret message you want to send to your friend. However, you don't want anyone else to be able to read it. So you decide to use something called encryption to make it really hard for others to understand.

Now, encryption by date is a way to make the message even more secure. This means you use the date as part of the secret code to encrypt the message. Let's say today is January 1st, 2022. You could use the numbers 1, 2 and 2 to create a code for your message. For example, you could replace each letter with the letter that comes 122 places after it in the alphabet. So the letter A would become the letter C, B would become D, and so on.

Now, the really neat thing about encryption by date is that tomorrow, January 2nd, 2022, you would use a different code. You would still use the number 1 from the month, but now you would use the numbers 2 and 2 from the year to create your code. This makes it even harder for someone to figure out your secret message, because they would have to know exactly what code you used on which day.

So, just like a special lock keeps your toys safe, encryption by date keeps your message safe from people who shouldn't see it. And that's why it's important to use encryption to protect important information!