40-bit Encryption

40-bit encryption refers to a key size of forty bits, or five bytes, for symmetric encryption; this represents a relatively low level of security. A forty bit length corresponds to a total of possible keys. Although this is a large number in human terms (about a trillion, nearly two hundred times the world's human population), it is possible to break this degree of encryption using a moderate amount of computing power in a brute force attack — that is, trying out each possible key in turn.