Importance of Encryption

Encryptions is a way of scrambling information so that it doesn’t fall into the hands of the wrong people. Let’s see encryption as a safe. To open a safe, we need the code and the key. The essence of a safe is to secure your valuables.

Encryption is the process of converting data into a secret code. I.e., converting data into a form. Encryption has been a long-standing way of protecting sensitive information. It protects data stored in a computer, storage devices, and data in transit over the network.

Importance of Encryption

It plays a vital role in securing different IT assets and provides authentication, integrity, non-repudiation, and confidentiality to the encrypted data.
It verifies the origin of the message.
It ensures that the sender does not deny they sent the encrypted message
It encodes the content of the message
It proves that the content of the message was not changed since it was sent.

HOW IT IS USED

Encryption is used to protect data. It is used to protect information being relayed. As the world advances, businesses are increasingly relying on it to protect their sensitive information and applications from reputable damages in case of a data breach.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Before the process begins, the sender needs to decide the cypher that will best disguise the message, meaning and the variables to use as a key to making the encoded message unique—the type of cypher that is widely used falls into two categories which are symmetric and asymmetric cypher.

Symmetric cypher, known as secret key encryption, uses a single key. This single key is also known as a shared key because the sender must share the key with everyone entitled and authorized to decrypt the message. Symmetric cypher is faster than asymmetric encryption.

The asymmetric cypher also referred to as public-key encryption, uses two different keys that are logically linked. It uses prime numbers to create keys because it is computationally difficult to factor in large prime numbers. Currently, many cryptographic processes use the asymmetric algorithm to securely exchange secret key while symmetric algorithms are used to encrypt data.

Advantages of Encryption

It protects the confidentiality of stored digital data or information transmitted over the internet.
It prevents unauthorised threats or third parties from accessing the information.
It is driven by the need to meet compliance regulations.

Disadvantages of Encryption.

One of the biggest challenges of an encryption strategy is key management. The keys that encrypt the cipher text are located somewhere visible.
Though it is designed to keep the information secured from unauthorised persons, it can also be difficult for the owner to access in some cases.
Apart from having a key management system, the administrator needs to develop a comprehensive plan to protect the key management system.
In the case of a disaster, the process of retrieving the key and adding it to a new backup server can increase the time it will take to get started with the recovering operations.

Encryption key management and wrapping

Key management

Encryption is an effective way of securing data. This is why cryptographic keys must be managed carefully to ensure that data remain protected and accessible when needed. Accessing cryptographic keys must be monitored and used by only authorised persons.

Strategies for cryptographic key management should begin with an audit establishing a benchmark on how to access the key. To help centralise key management, the key management software can be used. It can also be used to protect keys from unauthorised access, modification, and substitution.

Key wrapping

This is a type of security feature in some key management software that encrypts an organisation encryption keys. The process of decrypting keys that are not wrapped is called unwrapping. Unwrapping activities and key wrapping are usually carried out with symmetric encryption.

Types of Encryption

There are many types of encryption, but in this article, we will be considering a few. Below are the types of encryption that we will be considering.

1, Cloud storage encryption

As the name implies, cloud storage encryption is a service offered by cloud storage. This is a process whereby text or data is transformed using the encryption algorithm and is placed in cloud storage. This type of encryption is identical to in-house encryption. In this type of encryption, the cloud customers need quality time to learn about the provider policies and procedures and Encryption key management.

2, End to End encryption

With End-to-End encryption (E2EE), data sent between two parties cannot be viewed by a third party. An encrypted communication circuit provided by transport layer security which is between web server software and web client is not enough to ensure end-to-end encryption. Messaging apps that provide E2EE include WhatsApp and Facebook.

3, Bring Your Own Encryption (BYOE)

This type of cloud computing model helps cloud service customers to use and manage their encryption software effectively. It also enables customers to deploy a visualised instance of their encryption software.

4, Column-level encryption

This is an approach to database encryption where information on every cell of a particular column has the same password for accessing, reading, and writing.

5, Encryption as a Service ( EaaS)

Encryption as a service enables cloud service customers to take advantage of the security that encryption offers. It provides customers who lack the resource to manage encryption with data in a multi-tenant environment.

6, Network-level encryption

This type of encryption applies crypto services to the network. It transfers layers below the application level and above the data link level. This type of encryption is implemented through internet protocol security. A set of open internet engineering task forces is used to create a framework for private communication over an IP network.

Apart from the above, there are other types of encryption like FDE, HTTPS, Homomorphic encryption, and link-level encryption. Encryption is a form of Cybersecurity used to protect your data. With encryption, you are sure your information is safe. Encryption is a must for every organisation because it will help protect against Cybercrime. Every organisation should endeavor to prioritize encryption and make the most of it.

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