Every bit of data received and stored is important in today’s world. With the boom of digitization, the communication process is becoming secure and tighter. Transmitting sensitive information through a communication channel requires a lot of security. A lot of people use data encryption methodology to protect their information. However, when an individual learns what is cryptography and the benefits are, they would start following this technology.
- The information has to be safe from end-to-end because of the following reasons.
- There are a lot of unethical hackers who would steal the information.
- The information that you are sending has to reach the proper use only.
- The confidentiality of the data is intact well when there is proper protection.
Using encryption, you can secure data, but one cannot check user authentication. Therefore, knowing what is cryptography has become highly essential. Let us quickly understand the details of Crypto and the types of cryptography that we can use to safeguard the information.
Table of Contents
What is Cryptography?
The conversion of plain text files into incomprehensible text files or vice-versa is known as Cryptography. You can process messages or the information and read them by the proper receivers only. With the usage of Crypto, the reader/receiver can easily find out the authentication of the sender as well.
Crypto is totally levels above the other kinds of encryption methods that are used to protect the data. Initially, It was also known by the name encryption. But, with the advancement and technology, the concept has its own identification. The process of cryptography largely uses the theories and concepts from Mathematics and Computer science to secure the data.
Advantages of using cryptography
- The information is highly safe and confidential. No one but the intended user would be able to decode the message completely.
- Altering the information has zero scopes when cryptography is used.
- The intentions of the sender can be easily tracked with the help of cryptography. It is a Non-repudiation.
- Both the senders and the receivers can confirm the authenticity of the messages and their identification.
After knowing the merits of Cryptography, it becomes essential to also understand the places where this technology can be used.
- Usage of cryptography in places like Banks and other financial institutions are pretty common. The passwords of the debit cards, credit cards, and any other transactions in the banks make use of this technology vastly.
- A lot of e-commerce websites also use Cryptography techniques to keep their data safe and secure.
- Computer passwords also use Cryptography. Cryptography is largely in use to protect data that are totally confidential.
- In almost all the electronic transactions, you can use the Cryptography techniques.
types of cryptography
Knowing what is cryptography isn’t sufficient enough. Only when you understand the types of cryptography, you would be able to use them in an appropriate manner. There are three main cryptography techniques that you can use, and they are as follows:
Symmetric-key cryptography
In this type of cryptography technique, both the sender and the receiver has access to a single key. This key sharing happens between these two people during the exchange of the data. The messages from the sender would be encrypted and transmitted using this key.
At the receiver’s end, the messages are decoded using the same key to obtain the plain text. Thus, with one secret key, the transmission and sharing of the message happen between the sender and the receiver without much complications or lengthy procedures.
Public-Key Cryptography
The Public Key Cryptography is one of the concepts that people use largely over the last 300-400 years. Unlike the Symmetry technique, the Public-Key Cryptography uses two keys; Private and Public Key. The Public Key is in the place freely between the transmitters and the receivers. The private key a pair of the public key, and that remains secret totally. Only with the usage of the public key, the users would be able to encrypt and decrypt the messages. Public-Key Cryptography is probably one of the most revolutionary concepts in today’s generation.
Hash Functions
This algorithm uses no key at all, and this is completely different from the other two techniques. This technique uses the most secure way to encode a message. You can do it using the hash value according to the plain text. The hash values are constant depending on the information present in the plain text. No one can recover the messages that are encrypted using the Hash function. Most of the Operating systems use this technique to secure passwords.
These are the three main categories of Cryptography techniques, and you can use them according to the security required. In today’s world, currencies also make use of this technique. Cryptocurrencies are trending these days, and this is going to be the future of this generation. This technique ensures the safe transaction process of these digital money transactions that take place between the users.
Facts that you must know
You cannot use Cryptography everywhere. Also, just by gathering information on what is cryptography, applying it everywhere is impossible. There are a lot of other things that one must understand before using this method.
- Knowing why there is data encryption has to be clear.
- Understanding the concepts of the cryptography techniques thoroughly is mandatory.
- Possessing knowledge on the Three States of Data and also the lifecycle of the information would help you to apply the techniques appropriately
- Understanding the true need for data encryption along with the fundamentals would also be helpful when you are planning to use Crypto
- Along with all these things, it is also essential to understand the limitations of this technology even before using it.
We have listed everything that one has must know about Crypto and the techniques. With this information, you would be able to get a basic idea of this technology. Since this generation is going to largely make use of this technique, it becomes mandatory to know a few basic things about it. We hope this write-up on Crypto would help you to relate those things that you are already doing without being aware of this technology.
