Encryption Vs. Decryption | Know How Your Data Is Protected On Internet
Table of content:
- What is Encryption?
- How does Encryption work?
- Types of Encryption
- Advantages of Encryption
- Disadvantages of Encryption
- What is Decryption?
- Encryption Vs. Decryption
- Importance of Encryption and Decryption
- How is encryption used to keep Internet browsing secure?
What’s the most valuable asset in this generation powered by the internet? It is our data. Big companies like Facebook, Google, etc are using our data to run their business effectively, thus raising privacy concerns. Constant cases of data breach have made companies suffer huge losses. Therefore, data cannot be stored or transmitted in its original form.
You may have seen a line in social apps that says “Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted”.
Encryption and Decryption are essential features of Cryptography, which is a process of protecting data during communication.
The below image shows just gives an overview of encryption and decryption.
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What is Encryption?
Encryption is the process of converting a normal message/ meaningful message into an unrecognizable or meaningless message. In technical terms, converting plain text(unencrypted data) into ciphertext(encrypted data). Encryption happens at the sender’s end before sending the information. It is done using key algorithms also called ciphers.
In olden times, encryption was used by the military and government, and nowadays it is used by almost all tech companies and users to protect their data.
The security of data or information depends upon the complexity and the type of encryption key used.
The main purpose of encryption is to protect confidential data when it is stored in computers or is in transit over the internet to other computers.
For example, when we do online shopping or any transaction, the encryption process of our credit cards is very important so that hackers cannot steal information about the credit card.
How does Encryption work?
The first process involved in encryption is to decide the technique to be used to encrypt the message.
One of the first well-known methods was the Caesar cipher(named after Julius Caesar — a Roman general who encrypted his commands). the idea of Caesar cipher was to substitute every letter of the original message to some steps down the alphabet, and the number is something which only the sender and receiver know, also called a key.
Today’s secure communications are encrypted using 128-, 192- or 256-bit cipher which will take trillions of years to be cracked by unauthorized access. Most common among them are 128-bit encryption and 256-bit encryption. As the key size increases the encryption strength increases.
Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit keys is a government-approved algorithm for encrypting data.
Transport Layer Security(TLS) and Secure service layer(SSL) help to secure transmitted data using encryption.
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Types of Encryption
There are different types of encryption algorithms available. The basic types are:
1. Symmetric Encryption Algorithm
When the sender and receiver use the same key to encrypt and decrypt the message it is called symmetric encryption. The secret key has to be agreed upon ahead of time privately between the sender and receiver.
It is used for bulk data encryption as it is easy to use and fast. One disadvantage of using the symmetric key algorithm is that anyone with a decryption key can decrypt data even if they are unauthorized user.
2. Asymmetric Encryption Algorithm
In this type of encryption different keys are used for encrypting and decrypting.
There is a public key that can be exchanged with anybody and a private key that is not shared.
Now, what do we mean by a public key and a private key:
- Public key: Public key is used to encrypt data anybody can use to create a secret message.
- Private key: Private key is the only key that a computer can access can use to decrypt a message.
The RSA(Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) algorithm is the most used public-key encryption. The disadvantage of the Asymmetric algorithm it is slower than symmetric algorithms and requires great computational power.
Advantages of Encryption
- To protect the confidentiality of digital data stored on computer systems or transmitted over the internet through public networks.
- The companies are also adopting encryption to meet compliance regulations. For example, PCI DSS(Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) requires merchants to encrypt customers’
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Disadvantages of Encryption
- In some cases, Encryption prevents data’s actual owner to access data.
- Key management is one of the biggest challenges in the encryption process. Access to encryption keys needs to be given only to those users who need it.
What is Decryption?
Decryption is the process in which the ciphertext(unreadable form) is converted back to plain text(meaningful form). The decryption happens at the receiver’s end.
The message can be decrypted with a Decryption Key(private or secret key) which is only present with the receiver of data.
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Encryption Vs. Decryption
S. No.EncryptionDecryption1.It is the process of converting a normal message into a meaningless message(ciphertext).It is the process of converting a meaningless message into its original form/readable form.2.Encryption takes place at the sender’s end before sending the data.Decryption takes place at the receiver’s end after receiving the encrypted message.3.Converts plaintext to ciphertext.Converts ciphertext to plaintext.4.Encryption is done using a secret key or public key.Decryption is done using a secret key or private key.5.Example: When an employee sends information to the manager, encryption happens.Example: When the manager receives the information in encrypted form, he decrypts the message.
Importance of Encryption and Decryption
- It is a critical security measure designed to ensure that communication is received and processed correctly.
- It enables us to protect, receive, and store data making it impossible for cybercriminals to steal data.
- Consumers are not the only ones who suffer when data is breached or stolen, companies also suffer huge losses due to this. Therefore, it helps to protect them.
- Hacking is a big business and many big multi-national companies are into it.
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How is encryption used to keep Internet browsing secure?
Encryption is very important for making internet browsing secure i.e. making HTTP requests and responses secure, and checking the authenticity of website origin servers. HTTPS(Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is responsible for this. The websites whose address starts with https:// are secured with HTTS and it is also represented by a lock symbol in the address bar.
HTTPS uses Transport Layer Security (TLS), earlier Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) was used. To implement HTTPS a TLS certificate should be installed on the origin server.
Using TLS makes it secure to send personal and sensitive information to the internet for example, while doing transactions, filing taxes, or carrying any personal business.
Summing up…
- Encryption and Decryption are used to keep the internet secure by protecting our data.
- Encryption is the process of converting messages into ciphertext and decryption is the process by which we get the original message back.
- Encryption helps to prevent our data from being attacked by hackers.
- Encryption is also important in internet browsing security.
- Encryption and decryption are done using various algorithms which are updated regularly.
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