Cybersecurity is given top priority in the digital industry since it can have extremely serious effects if the wrong hands see the private information. This article will cover how employing encryption methods can help to safeguard data.
What is Data Encryption
In today’s technological environment, it is crucial for individuals to safeguard their information against potential cyber attacks that could result in significant financial losses. This is where the encryption comes to save the user from cyber crimes.
Simply said, encryption converts data into a code that only those who have access to a decryption key can decipher. Once the receiver gets a chip text, they have to encrypt it with a special key, which is why it’s extremely important to keep it secret at all times.
Such a trustworthy route of communication prevents accidental or deliberate access to the transmitting data from individuals who were not intended to have it. Data authentication, data integrity, and non-cancellation qualities are additional processes that the algorithms incorporate for secure data transfer.
In general, there are two types of encryption: symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption methods.
The best Encryption Algorithms
The major problem is that as data encryption methods advance, cyberattackers get better at deciphering the codes as well. This is why it’s crucial to choose the most effective data encryption method with the highest security rating.
These are 5 remarkable encryptions to pay attention to:
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
PGP is one of the most popular encryption algorithms for encrypting emails and files, as well as authenticating messages using digital signatures and encrypted stored files. For key security, the technique employs an asymmetric encryption protocol. PGP’s first freeware and paid copies are no longer accessible and the program’s ownership changed repeatedly until it was decided to discount it. PGP was initially held by Zimmerman, but ownership later passed to PGP Inc. PGP is now widely used to describe any encryption tool or application that adheres to the OpenPGP public key cryptography standard.
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
AES is also a pretty popular encryption standard on the market. Developed by Belgian cryptographers, it is used for private data protection. It replaced another algorithm, DES, having better key size and computing capability, and speed. The method is oriented in such technology as messaging apps and computer platforms. It features a symmetric key encryption method that both encrypts and decrypts data with the same key. It is recognized as more secure than RSA encryption. AES has never been cracked by hackers yet.
RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman)
RSA is an asymmetric key encryption to protect digital signatures and data encryption. The algorithm prevents cyber treads, identity theft attacks, and online fraud. It is considered pretty safe as the method utilizes both public and private keys to encrypt data. The opposite key that was used to encrypt the message is applied to decode it. RSA encryption is typically employed together with other encryption methods or for digital signatures to verify message authenticity and integrity. It is not typically used to encrypt complete messages or files due to the inferior efficiency and increased resource consumption.
Blowfish
Blowfish is a symmetric encryption system that employs a single key for encryption and decoding. It is rather fast and highly efficient thanks to the 448 bit key and is commonly used in managing passwords, backup tools, file, disk, and email encryption. Although the algorithm is considered to be very time-consuming, it is absolutely the best in terms of protection from brute-force attacks. However, compared to AES, the Blowfish is more exposed to birthday attacks.
TwoFish
TwoFish is one more symmetric encryption which uses a 256 bit key. It is small-device-friendly and safer than other encryption methods. TwoFish provides fast and slow encryption that depends on the data size. It supports applications where keys are changed many times and any RAM and ROM sizes. The great advantage of this algorithm is that it’s completely free for every single user. Moreover, it is highly compatible with most platforms.
Which Encryption Method to Choose
As you can see, the encryption algorithms vary based on the security level, the key type and length as well as the size of the encrypted data blocks. Each method is used to encrypt different types of data.
We hope that the materials provided above will help you choose the perfect encryption algorithm that suits all your goals and preferences.