Encryption has a big impact on our privacy. Often regarded as the most effective way to secure data, encryption provides a secure means of transmitting even the most sensitive data, including government documents and personal health data. Most companies are now shifting their services online to reach out to millions of people.
Software as a service (SaaS) is an option for accessing a software online through subscription, rather than downloading. According to statistics, about 88% of small businesses are adopting this method. Customers are often required to give out some of their essential information online on various websites or applications, which is quite risky. That is why encryption is quite beneficial.
As the general public has grown accustomed to being protected by security devices with the introduction of encrypted communications like WhatsApp, users are now demanding end-to-end encryption for almost any communication method. So what exactly is encryption, and why is it so important to the average citizen? Here's everything you need to know about the nature of encryption and why it's important.
Private Data Encryption
You are likely to have sensitive data like banking information on your phone, laptop, tablet, or any other device. Without encryption, all of this private data would be accessible or intercepted by third parties and malicious people.
When data is encrypted, it is mixed up to form unreadable nonsense called “ciphertext.” To access the information, the reader must have an encryption key that will allow him to decrypt the message to convert it back to a readable format.
Currently, the highest levels of encryption available are 256-bit and 128-bit. To put it simply, the bits correspond to the size of the encryption key, which acts as a password. This means you need 2 to the power of 256 attempts to decode specific information. The larger the key, the more difficult it is to decipher. To put it in perspective, banks and the military use 128-bit encryption, which is a trillion times stronger than 40-bit encryption.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
It is an asymmetric encryption algorithm used to encrypt fixed blocks of data, mostly 128 bits at a time. Encryption keys used to decode the test can be long in 128-, 192-or 256-. A 256-bit key is normally used to encrypt data in 14 rounds.
The 192-bit key is used in 12 rounds and 10 rounds for the 128-bit key. Each round consists of several steps of transposition, substitution, mixing of plaintext, and many more. AES encryption standards are widely used in several areas today for data in transit and data at rest. You can go through app with AES encryption review to understand more about this encryption standard.
Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA)
It is a lopsided encryption algorithm based on the factoring of the product of two significant prime numbers. Only those with an understanding of those numbers can encrypt the message successfully. This encryption standard is widely used in digital signatures but works very slow when massive data volumes have to be decoded.
Triple Data Encryption Standard (TripleDES)
It is another lopsided encryption, and an improved form of the DES option used to encrypt bits of information using a 58-bit key. Triple data encryption standard utilizes DES cipher algorithm thrice to each data block. It is widely used in the encryption of UNIX passwords and ATM PINs.
Twofish
Twofish is an encryption method that is license-free and locks data blocks of up to 128 bits. It is regarded as the successor of the Blowfish encryption method that locks block messages of up to 64 bits. Twofish locks data in 16 rounds without considering the key size. Though slower than AES, it is widely used by many folder encryption software solutions.
