As we are moving into the digital evolution so the issues of data theft or data breach are increasing. Nowadays, there are massive amounts of sensitive information which is shared and stored online in the cloud. In order to protect the data while sharing or storing, it can be kept safe by using Encryption.
It uses one or more mathematical techniques/ algorithms (AES, RSA) known as cryptography. In Encryption human-readable plaintext is converted into incomprehensible text, also known as ciphertext.
| “Hello” word gets encrypt into ciphertext -> | “#%$h@&L%” ciphertext gets again decrypted back to -> | “Hello“ |
Uses: Encryption is commonly used by individuals or companies to protect sensitive information from hacking e.g., when you use WhatsApp, its messages are end-to-end Encrypted. Similarity companies that store credit card, bank account and other consumer data uses encryption to secure the information.
Data encryption can be divided into 2 parts, asymmetric encryption and symmetric encryption
- Asymmetric encryption, also known as Public-Key Cryptography, uses 2 different keys, a “public” and a “private key” to encrypt and decrypt the data using two separate cryptographic asymmetric keys. e.g., RSA, PKI (Public key infrastructure). It is used for digital signatures when signing an online document and in blockchain to authorize transactions for cryptocurrency. Asymmetric encryption is slower encryption.
- Symmetric encryption uses one secret symmetric key to both encrypt the plaintext and decrypt the ciphertext. It is used when speed is the priority over increased security and This encryption is commonly used in credit card transactions e.g., Data Encryption Standards (DES), and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Known messaging platform WhatsApp also uses Symmetric encryption.
Advanced Encryption Standard 256 (AES): It is the most widely used and the gold standard for data encryption, and the U.S. government standard. Most banks, militaries, and governments use 256-bit encryption.
Shortcomings: As of now these technologies are very safe but Quantum Computing is a real threat to encryption. A quantum computer can decrypt such encryption within minutes. Until Quantum computers are not made we can rely on these and after that we have to make some substantial changes, but there is a long walk to go.