Deciphering encryption and its importance 28 September 2005
With more and more of business being conducted online, verifying what information can be trusted and what could be harmful is becoming increasingly difficult. Not only can such data be time consuming and annoying, it can also be very expensive and even has the potential to put companies out of business.
To address this, applications such as virtual private networks, online retailing and online banking all rely on forms of encryption.
The question is what is encryption and how is it helping your business stay safe?
Types of Encryption
Encryption is a 'key' based technology meaning data is encoded using a keyword. The keyword transforms the original data by a certain algorithm. Most computer encryption systems belong in one of two categories:
- Symmetric encryption is perhaps the oldest form of encryption and has been around for thousands of years in some form or another. Put simply, a sender encrypts a message using a code. The receiver has the same code and deciphers the message using it. This system requires that the sender knows which computer (or device) will receive the information so that a code or 'key' can be installed on that machine. Many banks and retailing websites use this method as only the two users should have access to the key.
- Public-key encryption was invented in 1976 and is a common way of securing many day-to-day applications such as online forms and digital certificates (see our previous article). It is a type of cryptography similar to symmetric encryption, however, it varies in that one of the keys is public and can be known to anyone. The public key can only encode data; it cannot decode it. Your private key stays safe with you. When people send you encrypted information, they encrypt it using your public key. You then decrypt it with your private key.
Keys are key
Keys are crucial to encryption. The basic maxim being the longer the key, the greater the number of possible combinations and therefore the more secure the encryption. An encryption program that uses 128 bit encryption could be any of more than 3.4 trillion billion billion billion (or 2 to the power of 128) possible combinations of zeros and ones.
One popular method of encryption that can be used for free is Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). More information on this is available on Wikipedia other good sources of information on encryption are also available from Howstuffworks.com and Security Focus
