[4] Prior to the use of computer hardware, cryptography could be performed through various mechanical or electro-mechanical means.

[citation needed] After World War II, purely electronic systems were developed.

The development of the World Wide Web lead to the need for consumers to have access to encryption, as online shopping became prevalent.

[9] This led to the eventual inclusion of the key algorithms into processors as a way of both increasing speed and security.

The x86 architecture implements significant components of the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm,[1] which can be used by the NSA for Top Secret information.

Malicious software can retrieve the data from the (supposedly) secure hardware – a large class of method used is the timing attack.

Similarly, regular security updates are released for Mac OS X and Linux, as well as mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

Sometimes, the issue will be fixable through updates to the processor's microcode (a low level type of software).