How does increasing the number of bits of encryption affect the difficulty of breaking it?

Increasing the number of bits in an encryption algorithm directly enhances the security of the encryption. This is due to the exponential growth in the number of possible combinations that an attacker must try to break the encryption. For each additional bit, the number of possible keys doubles.

For example, with 128 bits of encryption, there are 2^128 possible combinations, while with 256 bits, there are 2^256 combinations. This significant increase in combinations makes brute-force attacks exponentially more difficult and time-consuming. The computational power and resources required to try each possible key rise dramatically, making it significantly harder for an attacker to successfully decrypt the data without the correct key.

Thus, a higher bit length in encryption translates into greater security, making it substantially more challenging to break the encryption without authorization. This is why the choice indicating that increasing the bits makes it harder to break is correct.