What Is Encryption And How Does It Work: 5 Things To Know

encryption key management

Are you looking for some essential pieces of encryption? Do you want to know far more than the basic knowledge of Encryption? Then you are in the right place to get an array of more enhanced information about encryption. Let’s start with the definition.

encryption key management

What Is Encryption?

It is a particular method in which information is converted into a secret code. This very secret code hides the true meaning of the information. The science that is supporting the whole process of encrypting and also decrypting information is addressed as Cryptography.

In computing, the plaintext is the name of unencrypted data, and when the data is encrypted, it is called ciphertext. The formulas that are being used for encoding and also decoding those messages are addressed as encryption algorithms or ciphers.

5 Things To Know About Encryption

As now we know the most basic thing that is what encryption is, we can head towards more detailed information. Here I will discuss some more detailed and in-depth encryption key management aspects that will clear most of the doubts that you might be having.

Importance Of Encryption

When it comes to securing different types of IT or Information Technology assets, encryption plays a vital role. Here, you can expect the following things.

  • Authentication: Encryption always verifies the origin of a specific message.
  • Confidentiality: Encryption is also essential for encoding the content of a message.
  • Integrity: At the same time, Encryption also proves that any content of a specific message has not been changed since the message was sent.
  • Nonrepudiation: It also makes sure that the sender who has sent the encrypted message can not deny the fact.

How Is It Used?

From the above discussion, we can definitely say that encryption has a role in protecting data in transit. At the same time, it also ensures the protection of data at rest. Each time when someone uses an ATM or makes an online payment through mobile, encryption protects all that information from being relayed.

Businesses and big brands are relying on encryption when it comes to protecting applications along with sensitive information from any kind of reputational damage due to a data breach.

How Does Encryption Work?

The initiation of an encryption p[rocess starts with the sender deciding what cipher is most suitable for disguising the actual meaning of the message. It also involves choosing the variable that will be used as a key for making the encoded message unique.

This might seem a bit difficult to understand if you want to get Into Cybersecurity with no experience. In recent days, many cryptographic processes use a symmetric algorithm for encrypting data and for securely exchanging the secret key, an asymmetric algorithm comes into action.

Types Of Encryption

I hope now you have understood the outline of an encryption process. In order to improve your knowledge on the particular subject of encryption, you need to know the different types of encryption. Here they are as follows.

  1. BYOE, or Bring your own encryption.
  2. Cloud storage encryption.
  3. Column-level encryption.
  4. Deniable encryption.
  5. EaaS, or Encryption as a Service.
  6. E2EE, or end-to-end encryption.
  7. Field-level encryption.
  8. FDE.
  9. Homomorphic encryption.
  10. HTTPS.
  11. Network-level encryption.
  12. Quantum cryptography.

Encryption Algorithms

Just like the different types of algorithms that I have mentioned above, there are also different encryption algorithms present, which are being used across the globe. Different regions prefer to make use of different algorithms.

  • AES
  • DES.
  • Diffie-Hellman key exchange.
  • ECC or Elliptical curve cryptography.
  • QKD or Quantum key distribution.
  • RSA.

The Bottom Line

It will take some time for you in case you are willing to develop a piece of in-depth knowledge about the topic of encryption. But I hope after going through this article, you developed a basic idea about the encryption process. In case you have any other queries, you can reach us, and we will try to offer you a reliable solution. You also can write to us if you want to share anything. Our readers will love to read your views.