Encryption is the process of encoding a message, and today we have incredibly sophisticated software and algorithms that make our encrypted messages almost impossible to decode. But how does it work? These art projects answer that question by exploring how encryption has become part of daily lives.

Once the domain of spies and engineers, encryption is now part of the art world. Artists are co-opting crypto tools to build installations, objects and sculptures that explore anonymity and digital surveillance.

Often the hardware and network infrastructure of encryption is invisible to us. These artists aim to change that by showing us what it really looks like, and how it really worksand in the process prove just how critical crypto really is.

In 2013, Der Spiegel published a long catalog of tools that the NSA uses to carry out digital surveillance. That leak served as a blueprint for artist Francesco Tacchini, who decided to reverse engineer two of those tools.

One, called CANDYGRAM, is used by the NSA to create a fake cell towerhelpful for tracking surveillance targets via their phones. Another, SPOOK-I, uses frequencies that humans can't hearbut that any gadget with a microphone can pick up. It "surreptitiously switches a target device's traffic from a cellular network's area of influence onto a surveilled radio frequency," according to the NSA's documents.

Tacchini describes his piece, SPOOK-I, as a joint "wireless jammer and sniffer." When you walk into the gallery, it jams your phone's Wi-Fi signal and throws your name up on a nearby wall. Soon, you'll receive an email from an @nsa.gov email reading "this device is now under surveillance: you have been added onto a radio frequency controlled by the US National Security Agency." Things only get weirder from there. Read more here, or over on Creative Applications.

If you've seen an aerial shot of the NSA headquarters recently, you probably have Trevor Paglen to thank. The artist (who you might better know from his work The Last Pictures), has spent the last few years focused on the agencies that surveil us, including renting a helicopter to take unprecedented aerial photos of the banal suburban headquarters of the NSA, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

In his latest gallery show at Altman Siegel in San Francisco, Paglen is showing off something called an Autonomy Cube.

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5 Unsettling Works of Encryption Art

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Stronger encryption in Apple's iPhones and on websites like Facebook has "petrified" the U.S. government because it has made it harder to spy on communications, Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first reported on Edward Snowden's stolen files, told CNBC.

Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden caused major shockwaves around the world in 2013 when he unveiled the surveillance body's wide ranging spying practices, which included regularly attempting to snoop on data held by major technology companies.

Greenwald, the man who helped Snowden publish the documents, said that Silicon Valley companies have bolstered the encryption on their products, thereby making it harder for governments to eavesdrop.

"They (Apple) are now starting to put serious encryption technologies in their new iPhones in their new releases and this has really petrified governments around the world," Greenwald told CNBC in an interview at tech fair CeBIT in Germany.

Read More from CNBC: Don't want NSA to spy on your email? 5 things you can do

Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo are some of the major companies that have been in the spotlight after Snowden's revelations. Information from Snowden documents released earlier this month detailed how the CIA had been trying for a decade to crack the security in Apple's products. And last year, Yahoo revealed that it was threatened with a $250,000-per-day fine if it didn't hand over data to the NSA.

The tech giants have been taking major steps to make sure their communications are safe from spying, a move Greenwald -- who won a Pulitzer prize for his reporting on the topic -- said was motivated by the fear of losing customers rather than care for data privacy.

"I don't(think) they suddenly care about privacy," Greenwald said.

"Ifyou're a Facebook executive or an Apple executive, you're extremely worried that the next generation of usersare going to be vulnerable to the pitch from Brazilian, and Korean and German social media companies where they advertise and say don't use Facebook and Google because they'll give your data to the NSA."

First published March 18 2015, 1:59 PM

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iPhone Encryption 'Petrified' NSA: Glenn Greenwald

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Nearly two years after former government contractor Edward Snowdenrevealed details of extensivegovernment surveillance programs, a PewResearchreportsuggeststhat the news hasprompted some Americans tochange their approach to online privacy.

The group surveyed about500 adult Americans, finding that nearly 90 percent of themhad heard about government surveillance programs and more than a third of those aware of the programs "have taken at least one step to hide or shield their information from the government," the report said.

Though the report found thata majority of Americans are skeptical of governmentsurveillanceprograms, it also foundvery few are taking the extra step of encrypting the content of their e-mails. In fact,half of those surveyed said using encryption software gives the government enough suspicion to monitor a U.S. citizen's communications.

Most free e-mail providers automatically use a security feature known as SSL encryptionthat obscuresthe content of messages from third parties but leaves service providers such as Gmail or Yahooable to access the message themselves. To guarantee thatonly the sender and receiver can access the contents of messages, you have to use end-to-end encryption a process that typically involves specialized software and several additional steps.

Using end-to-end can be overwhelming, especially for less technically adept users, because some of the tools are difficult to use, said independent security researcher Runa Sandvik.

So it's not a huge surprise that Pew found e-mail encryption adoption rates are pretty abysmal. Only 2percent of Americans who had heard about government surveillance programs had since started using e-mail encryption tools, and only 10 percent more had even considered adopting it. Nearly half of the respondents said they hadn't adopted or considered such tools while anotherthird didn't evenknow what e-mail encryption is.

In the wake of the revelations about NSA snooping, big tech companies have made privacy and security bigger parts of their public strategy sometimes garnering the ire of law enforcement officials who warnsuch effortscould limit the government's ability to track terror and crime online. And both Google and Yahooare working on plug-ins aimed at making it easier for users of their e-mail services to use end-to-end encryption.

[Yahoos plan to get Mail users to encrypt their e-mail: Make it simple]

But there's evidence that efforts to expand encryption may actually result in the U.S. government holding on to someAmericans'communications longer because it views the use of encryption as generally suspicious. An intelligencefunding bill passed last December said that Americans' communications incidentally collected under a controversial executive order could be retained longer than five years if "enciphered or reasonably believed to have a secret meaning."

According to Pew, Americans are pretty evenly split on on whetherusing encryption is enough to let the government monitor the communications of U.S. citizens.Nearly half, 49 percent, said it was acceptable for the government to monitor Americans if they "used encryption software to hide files."

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Is using encryption suspicious? Half of Americans say yes, according to Pew.

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The Web giant also introduced an end-to-end encryption plugin for Yahoo Mail.

Yahoo has announced a new on-demand password service, as well as end-to-end encryption for email users.

During this week's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, the Web giant unwrapped new features that it said would make users' lives a little easier and more secure.

The intuitive password option allows users to log into their account without needing to remember a long sequence of letters and numbers.

"We've all been there," Chris Stoner, director of product management, wrote in a blog entry. "You're logging into your email and you panic because you've forgotten your password. After racking your brain for what feels like hours, it finally comes to you. Phew!"

Yahoo's new authentication option aims to eliminate that scenario. Just sign into your Yahoo.com account (assuming you remember your passcode), then click on your name on the top right corner of the account info page.

Select "Security" in the left-hand bar, then tap "on-demand passwords" to opt in. Enter your phone number, and Yahoo will send a verification code. Type that cipher in next time you log on, rinse, and repeat.

The service is available now to Yahoo subscribers in the United States. Also new is an end-to-end encryption plugin for Yahoo Mail, which Yahoo chief information security officer Alex Stamos blogged about and demonstrated at SXSW this week.

"While at this stage we're rolling out the source code for feedback from the wider security industry, our goal is to provide an intuitive e2e encryption solution for all users by the end of the year," Stamos said.

The first Yahoo-specific e2e encryption plug-in source code is available now on GitHub. Yahoo encouraged other email providers to build compatible solutions and for security researchers to report vulnerabilities via the Bug Bounty program.

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WASHINGTON

Clicking through a clogged inbox overflowing with spam and unanswered messages, it may begin to feel that email is more nuisance than help in these days of instant texts and Snapchats.

Still, email remains a primary communications tool both for global business and personal matters.

Ensuring its privacy and security is of paramount importance as seen in news last week that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used non-government email services.

Email is much less secure than we people think, analysts say.

Phishing, Trojan Horses, injection, spoofing these are just a few of the many ways email continues to prove itself easily compromised.

Now, a partial solution might be at hand

Its called ProtonMail, and while it isnt fool-proof, it puts genuinely sophisticated encryption tools at hand of even inexperienced web users.

Fighting for privacy

Many of us probably think, well, one email, there's nothing in there, right? asks Andy Yen, co-creator of ProtonMail in a recent TED Conferencepresentation.

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Encryption Service Aims to Make Email Truly Private