Encryption for Beginners – Learn the Art and Leave It!
For many, the term encryption is associated with Cold War spies who try to break the most difficult encryption algorithm in underground offices of the CIA and the KGB, secret missions and self‑destructing messages written in a combination of ancient Aramaic and linear B’ that if they fall into the enemy's hands the earth will be destroyed. In the modern world – and not in Tolkien's stories – encryption is an invaluable security tool that any business as well as an individual can easily use to protect confidential and sensitive data and information from malicious users and curious colleagues.
The beginning of cryptography, wherever it is used, has the same purpose – to ensure that no one can decrypt the message except its creator and the intended recipient.
Unfortunately, most companies don't take advantage of encryption, fearing that they are too complex and difficult to use on a daily basis. In reality, using encryption on critical data is no more demanding than simply running a virus scanner or making a simple backup of your data.
Asymmetric Encryption – PKI Encryption
There are two basic ways to encrypt the data we are interested in. The first way is to use asymmetric encryption (PKI – public-key infrastructure). Asymmetric encryption is based on the existence of a pair of keys, a private one that is known exclusively to its owner and a public one that is known to the respective sender-recipient of a message. Asymmetric encryption provides privacy and confidentiality, access control, and data transaction confirmation. While most security provide some type of asymmetric encryption in their products, variations in their design and implementation prevent interoperability between products.
Symmetric Encryption – Secret Key Encryption
The second method of encryption is symmetric encryption, also known as encryption using a secret key. Symmetric encryption is generally presented as considerably faster but less secure compared to asymmetric encryption, given that it uses the same key for both encryption and decryption of messages. Symmetric encryption is quite effective when we have limited key distribution among a small number of trusted users. Because symmetric encryption is relatively easy to break, it is primarily used to protect less confidential information or data that must remain encrypted for a limited period of time.
In the next post we will talk about applied cryptography, what we can encrypt and what we must encrypt!
