Data Encryption : A Powerful and an Approachable Technology!

Encryption is the process of changing information in a way as to make it unreadable by anyone except those possessing special knowledge that allows them to change the information back to its original, readable form. Encryption is important because it allows us to protect data that we don’t want anyone else to have access to.

Businesses use encryption method to protect corporate secrets, government use it to secure classified information, and many individuals use it to protect personal information to guard against things like identity theft. So the main purpose of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of digital data stored on computer systems or transmitted via the internet or other computer networks.

Different methods of Encryption:

Hashing:

Hashing creates a unique signature for a message or set of data. Hashing takes data and creates hash out of it. Each hash is unique to the specific message so minor change to the message would be easily tracked.

Symmetric Encryption:

Symmetric encryption is also known as private-key cryptography, and is called so because the key used to encrypt and decrypt the message must remain secure. The most important thing about symmetric encryption is that both sides—the encrypter, and the decrypter—need access to the same key.

Asymmetric methods:

It uses two keys for encryption or decryption. With this a public key is freely available to everyone and is used to encrypt the message.The private key is used by the recipient to decrypt the message.

Benefits of Encryption:

Encryption helps to move data in to the cloud:

Encryption can make it possible to leverage benefits of infrastructure as a service while still it ensures the privacy of data.

Encryption helps to achieve secure multi tenancy in cloud:

In cloud environment multi-tenancy drives cost down and increases flexibility. If you encrypt data before it enters the cloud, and retain control of the encryption keys, you can ensure your data is safe, regardless of its neighbors.

Encryption prevents service providers from accessing private data:

If service provider has your encrypted data and encryption keys then they can easily access your data. To avoid this problem encrypting your data on cloud and holding your own key is the safest mode.

Encryption provides service providers a competitive edge:

As a cloud service provider, you are a guardian of your customers’ applications and data. Thieves are getting smarter and regulations are getting more stringent. Encryption and key management software, designed specifically for virtualized environments, can help you significantly improve your security posture, attract new customers, and expand your business with existing clients.

Use of encryption in Modern world:

Encryption makes modern world go around. Now a day making mobile calls, buying something with credit or debit cards, shopping on the web, getting cash from ATM machine is not possible without encryption. So encryption is all about transforming intelligent numbers, text, sound or images in to a stream of nonsense.

People uses encryption to securely protect folder contents, which could contain emails, chat histories, tax information, credit card numbers, or any other sensitive information. This way, even if your computer is stolen that data is safe.

So finally encryption is a powerful technology. Once anyone knows how it works, it is an approachable technology as well. This technology provides tremendous benefits to any organization handling confidential information.