Encryption is the first step to data security. It is the simplest and most important way to ensure that the information on a computer system can’t be stolen by someone for illegal or immoral purposes.
Encryption messes up the readable text so it can only be decoded by the person with the decryption key or a secret pattern or code.
It is used widely by individuals and large corporations to protect sensitive data on servers and databases, and user information shared between a browser and a server. It can protect the data sent, received, and stored. Hence, encryption plays an essential role.
What Is Data Encryption?
Data encryption is a security method of translating data into another form or code that can only be accessed by people with a decryption key or a password. The encrypted data is commonly described as ciphertext, while the unencrypted data is called plaintext.
It is the conversion of data from a readable format into an encoded format that is incomprehensible to anyone before decryption.
Strong encryption combined with an effective key protects sensitive data from unauthorized access, reform, and leak or data theft. However, encryption does not ensure the evasion of the theft. Instead, it prevents the visibility of stolen content in plaintext format.
Data encryption can be utilized for data that is stored (at rest), data that is being generated, updated, viewed, or erased (data in use), and for the data being transmitted over a network (in motion).
Purpose of Data Encryption
The main purpose of data encryption is the confidentiality of data that is stored on computer systems and is transmitted using the internet or other computer networks. Encryption also provides a means of proving that the information is authentic, that data hasn’t been altered during transmission and the point of origin has not been compromised.
Four Reasons Why Organizations Need To Practice Encryption:
1. Authentication:
Public key encryption verifies whether the website’s origin server owns a private key and was lawfully assigned an SSL certificate. Fraudulent websites can be thus avoided.
2. Privacy:
Encryption guarantees only the legitimate recipient with a passcode can access data. This measure prevents hackers, cybercriminals, spammers, internet service providers as well as government institutions from reading personal messages.
3. Security:
Encryption protects data against malicious activities and data breach whether the data is in rest or transit.
4. Regulatory Compliance:
Various industries and government departments practice rules that require organizations to encrypt their users’ personal information for robust security. Organizations need to accredit themselves with these acts if they want to work with the users’ data. The regulatory compliance acts are:
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) – protects patients’ sensitive health information
- Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) – protects records of students
- Fair Credit Practices Act (FCPA) – protects consumer data
Types of Encryption
There are two major types of data encryption:
Symmetric Encryption:
Symmetric key algorithms use the same key to both encode and decode the information. This leads to fast and effective encryption and simpler key generation and management. This is best used for sharing smaller data sets, one on one. It is also called private-key cryptography or a secret key algorithm. However, only a single key must be available to authorized users since it allows the user to access, modify and re-encrypt the data without detection.
Asymmetric Encryption:
Asymmetric encryption also called public-key cryptography uses mathematically linked keys, a public key, and a private key. The public key encrypts data and a separate parallel key decrypts it. The advantage of asymmetric encryption is that a widely recognized public key can be used to encrypt data but only those with a private key can decrypt and access the data.
Internet Security professionals classify Hashing as another data encryption method.
Hashing:
Hashing is a method of verifying data. It generates a unique signature of fixed length for every message. Each message has a unique hash. Minor changes to the information are easily traceable. Data encrypted with hashing cannot be decoded or reversed back to its original form.
Following are the data security encryption techniques:
- Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
- Triple DES (Data Encryption Standard)
- Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA)
- Blowfish
- Twofish
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
- Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
- End-to-end Encryption (E2EE)
How to use data encryption?
Encryption is the process of making data unreadable to anyone but selective people. When one encrypts data it passes through an algorithm known as cipher. Cipher encodes data according to a key. After the data is encrypted, only individuals with the key can translate and read its contents. Cipher is an engine for encryption and the key directs cipher on how to precisely encode one’s data. The strength of the encryption depends on the key and not the cipher. Data is impenetrable as long as the key is safe.
The way the encryption works varies and it depends on what is being encrypted.
Usually, a browser provides an extra layer of security with the help of TLS (Transport Layer Security) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt the connection.
While checking out after a purchase, the computer sends information to the server it is trying to connect to requesting to verify its identity. The server sends back a piece of code that contains a public key and an encrypted signature in form of a virtual certificate to prove that the server isn’t phony. The public key can then be used to send encoded messages to the server. The server decodes those messages through the private key only server possesses.
Email encryption depends on the protocol used. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) use a combination of strategies to send and receive an encrypted email. They provide client-side encryption. The message is encrypted right from the time it is sent to the time the receiver descrambles it. Not even the email provider can see the content of the messages. However, PGP and S/MIME are difficult for an average user to configure for daily use. If the email is sent to an individual that uses a different protocol the recipient won’t be able to decrypt their message.
Benefits of Data Encryption
Following are the primary benefits of data encryption:
- Data encryption tools and technologies can be applied across multiple devices.
- Encryption decreases the risk of hacking and protects sensitive information.
- Encryption aids data integrity.
- Data encryption enables secure communications.
- Data encryption protects intellectual property.
- It enhances trust and provides a competitive edge.
Conclusion
Encryption is one of the most popular and effective data security methods used to protect an organization’s information. Modern encryption algorithms play a vital role in the security of IT systems and communications. They provide confidentiality, authentication, and integrity.
