08/01/2020 by admin with 0 comments

Basics of Encryption, Types of Encryption & Encryption Algorithm

---

Last Updated on January 10, 2021 by admin

BASICS OF ENCRYPTION

Encryption has become part of every person’s everyday life. It helps to defeat the cybercriminals and snoopers. The online traffic will be clear and visible to the prying eyes by definitely using VPN. In the US legislative push people and limit ways to use encryption. The EARN IT Act which is set by the government will be the best practice for tech companies. The encryption and its algorithms can be of various types that help you to understand better about what is encryption.

 

Must Read – What is Encryption?

What’s an Encryption Type? 

In the types, the main thing is to deal with the way that encryption processes operate. The three significant forms of encryption type are:

 

• Asymmetric: Asymmetric cryptography is one of the common forms of encryption used on today’s internet. It is also known as public-key cryptography. The data in this type of encryption can be secured by using a pair of keys. There are two types of keys used in the encryption process, one is the public key and another one is the private key. 

  The encryption services provider and also used to apply initial encryption is the public key. Ensure that it will usually change on a regular basis so that it can be protected from the hackers. The main work of the private key is to decrypt data once it reaches its destination. The holding of the private key is with the user or recipient only.The asymmetric encryption will be ubiquitous on the web. The asymmetric encryption used in Bitcoin, APIs payment, and many more. This will ensure that the credit card details will be secure. It is a slower encryption type as compare to symmetric encryption due to this it is mostly used to encrypt small pieces of data.

 

• Symmetric: A single key is used in the symmetric encryption. In this, the two nodes of the information are encrypted and decrypted by a single key. By using random-number generators the key will be created and they are grades of sophistication. The best symmetric encryption will be weaker than the asymmetric alternatives. The main benefit of symmetric encryption is its speed. As well have discussed the only key is used in this type so data can be encrypted and read must faster.

 

• Hash functions: Hash functions slightly vary in features than symmetric and asymmetric encryption. For the data protection purpose, the hash functions turn the plaintext into impenetrable code. The main aim of the hash function is to convert an input into a predetermined output. The size of the input does not matter either it is small or large; it will create a hash for the same fixed length. In the conventional sense, there is no decryption as the hash created will not turn back into the input. It is a very powerful tool but at the same, it also seems less useful than standard encryption.

 

Also Read – Hashing vs Encryption

 

The primary way of a hash function is to prove that the data or software is not authentic and that outsiders haven’t tampered with it. The various things in which hashes used are password storage systems, the password stored in hash format instead of plain text. Hashes detect the changes in the documents and data via monitoring changes in hash output.

 

INTRODUCTION TO ENCRYPTION ALGORITHMS

The essential tools that are used to turn plaintext into indecipherable chunks of data are Algorithms. The common word of the algorithm in the traditional cryptography is “cipher”. The main objective of grading the algorithms is according to their strengths. This means the key size length which is used by different forms of encryption. For example – the key length in the popular AES-128 algorithm is 128 characters.

 

The length of the key matters because longer the key is more difficult for the hacker to decrypt and encode the message. Over the years the key length increases steadily from 256-bit to 512-bit versions. There are many reasons because of which ciphers are stronger or weaker except the key length that includes:

 

• DES: Data Encryption Standard (DES) is the topmost algorithm that was invented in the 1970s by IBM with a key length of 56 characters. The DES is approved as the first digital algorithm in 1977 by the Federal Information Processing Standard. It also becomes a go-to option for classified document protection. DES is an antique in the present day and does not protect against hackers. Due to a lack of DES, it would be protected against digital intruders.

 

• Triple DES: The triple DES or 3DES uses a cipher of 168-bit and mainly apply old-style DES to data chunks three times. The one DES key encrypts the data and the other one decrypts the data before encrypting with the third key. On the other side, simply the process is reversed. This helps to provide more protection against brute-forcing. In 2017, NIST downgraded the algorithm. The algorithm is not at the gold standard.

 

• AES: The replacement of DES is the introduction of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This was mainly created by Belgian cryptographers, Joan Daemen, and Vincent Rijmen. The AES is adopted by NIST in 2001 and considered as the leading encryption standard and also remains relevant to modern cryptography. The size of the keys varies from 128 to 256-bits. The AES delivers a high level of security and speed and it has made this an option of choice for tools just like VPNs. Till 2020, AES still not able to effectively cracked.

 

• RSA: Since 1977, Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) is a public key algorithm. This uses two shared prime members that need to be as large as possible. The primes will remain private; the auxiliary number forms a public key part. The cracking of primes is a tough job especially when it is encrypted by padding to strengthen the private keys.

 

• SHA-256: It is the gold standard hashing algorithm. It replaced the older cipher like SHA-1 and MD5. The SHA-256 and AES-256 are the good partner function of each other and yet to be cracked. SHA-256 is used mostly in Bitcoin.

 

Also Read : SHA-1 VS SHA-2 VS SHA-256