Importance of Encryption and How Encryption works

Encryption

Encryption is a process that encodes a message or file so that it can be only be read by certain people. Encryption uses an algorithm to scramble, or encrypt, data and then uses a key for the receiving party to unscramble, or decrypt, the information. The message contained in an encrypted message is referred to as plaintext. In its encrypted, unreadable form it is referred to as ciphertext.

Importance of encryption

Encryption plays an important role in securing many different types of information technology (IT) assets. It provides below:

• Confidentiality encodes the message's content.

• Authentication verifies the origin of a message.

• Integrity proves the contents of a message have not been changed since it was sent.

• Nonrepudiation prevents senders from denying they sent the encrypted message.

How Encryption Works

Encryption uses algorithms to scramble your information. It is then transmitted to the receiving party, who is able to decode the message with a key. There are many types of algorithms, which all involve different ways of scrambling and then decrypting information.

Symmetric ciphers, also referred to as secret key encryption, use a single key. The key is sometimes referred to as a shared secret because the sender or computing system doing the encryption must share the secret key with all entities authorized to decrypt the message. Symmetric key encryption is usually much faster than asymmetric encryption. The most widely used symmetric key cipher is the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which was designed to protect government-classified information.

Asymmetric ciphers, also known as public key encryption, use two different -- but logically linked -- keys. This type of cryptography often uses prime numbers to create keys since it is computationally difficult to factor large prime numbers and reverse-engineer the encryption. The Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) encryption algorithm is currently the most widely used public key algorithm. With RSA, the public or the private key can be used to encrypt a message; whichever key is not used for encryption becomes the decryption key.

What is a brute force attack in encryption?

A brute force attack is when an attacker who does not know the key for decryption attempts to determine the key by making thousands or millions of guesses. Brute force attacks are much faster with modern computers, which is why encryption has to be extremely strong and complex. Most modern encryption methods, coupled with high-quality passwords, are resistant to brute force attacks, although they may be in the future as computers become more and more powerful. Weak passwords are still susceptible to this type of attack.

Types of encryption

• Cloud storage encryption

• Column-level encryption

• Deniable encryption

• Encryption as a Service (EaaS)

• End-to-end encryption (E2EE)

• Field-level encryption

• FDE

• Homomorphic encryption

• HTTPS

• Link-level encryption

• Network-level encryption

• Quantum cryptography