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Beginner’s guide to the basics of data encryption
- 2021/08/20
- 再生時間： 8 分
- ポッドキャスト
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あらすじ・解説
To understand what data encryption means, we first need to know what data is. Data refers to any piece of information that has been translated into a binary digital format that makes it easy to be moved or processed. The increase in smartphone usage and fast internet connectivity has led to a surge in the creation of digital data. Examples of data include text, video information, web and log activity records and audio. The proliferation of data in governments, organizations and agencies has placed increased emphasis on data quality and integrity. As a result, individuals and organizations are now faced with the heavy task of ensuring data quality and guaranteeing that the records in use are the most accurate. Data breaches have become rampant these days, which is why data integrity and quality are in question. According to Statista, the number of data breaches in the U.S. has grown from 157 in 2005 to over 1,000 each of the past five years. Is there something that can be done to control the situation? What is data encryption? Data encryption is one solution to mitigating the menace of data breaches that are ravaging the internet streets. Data encryption refers to the procedure or process of scrambling plaintext data into a complex undecipherable format known as ciphertext. Data encryption renders data unreadable to unauthorized parties who do not have the decryption keys. Robust data encryption tools, combined with competent key management, can go a long way toward safeguarding data from modification, data disclosures and theft. Data encryption is thus one of the most significant elements of a cybersecurity strategy. How does data encryption work? Data encryption algorithms in use today go beyond simply concealing data from unauthorized parties. Data encryption ensures that the data’s origin can be authenticated and maintains its integrity throughout its transmission stage. Encryption works by scrambling data and information into a sequence of a random and unrecognizable characters. The scrambled information is then transmitted to the receiver, who holds the decryption key to turn the ciphertext into plain text. You can see the figure below to understand more about how encryption works. Source: ClickSSL For example, the phrase “Nice Meeting You” can be encrypted to a ciphertext that appears like 4596 9012 11884. For the receiver to get back the “Nice Meeting You” text, they need a decryption key. Data encryption techniques There are several data encryption techniques. However, three approaches appear to be more popular. These are symmetric encryption, asymmetric encryption and hashing. We will have a look at them to see how they work. Symmetric encryption Symmetric encryption is the most straightforward data encryption that involves a single secret key for encryption and decryption of data. The private key could be in the form of a number, letter or a string of random numbers and letters. The secret key combines with the data in plain text to transform the contents of the information in a particular manner. Both the sender and recipient of the information must know the secret key. One of the major drawbacks of symmetric encryption is that the parties must exchange the private keys before the data can be decrypted. Asymmetric encryption (public key) Popularly referred to as public-key cryptography, asymmetric encryption is a relatively novel technique compared to symmetric encryption. This data encryption method uses two keys (private key and public keys) to convert plain text data into ciphertext. In public keys, two keys are used. The public key will encrypt data, while the private key will decrypt data. It is referred to as a public key because anyone can use the key to encrypt data. No hacker can read, interpret or decipher the original information once encrypted using a public key. The private key will be used to decrypt the data. Usually, details about the private key will be shared between the party sending the inform...