What is Encryption is an approach to scramble the information into an incomprehensible text. The sole purpose of turning data to such a state is to enable only the authorized parties to understand the information. This is a process of converting the human-readable plaintext to indecipherable text (not able to be read or understood). This Encrypting mechanism requires a cryptographic key, which consists of a set of numerical values that both the source and the beneficiary (Sender & Receiver) of an encrypted message agree on.
What is Encryption
What is a cryptographic key?
Cryptographic key is a String of data that resides inside an encryption algorithm. This is something similar to a physical key, which will be used to encrypt (lock) and decrypt(unlock) the data. When an encrypted message is shared with someone, the recipient must have the right key to decrypt the same. There are two types cryptographic keys:
- Symmetric
- Asymmetric
Symmetric encryption uses a single key for encryption & decryption. Sender & Receiver will use the same key in this instance. Whereas the Asymmetric encipher uses a public & private key to encipher & decipher the messages. The Symmetric methodology is an old way of encipher & Asymmetric encipher is the new one. However, the Asymmetric encipher takes a bit longer than the old one.
Advantages of Encryption
The main objective of Encipher is to protect the digital data stored in a computer device or transmitted over the Internet or any other network. The protected information could be accessed only by the authorized party as the confidentiality of the digital data is secured through this process.
- There are many Free & paid options available to Encrypt your computer. Also, users can use it across multiple devices. Windows OS has an inbuilt (Bit locker) software to encrypt the device or there are 3rd party software available too. When it comes to smartphones, the iPhone’s data is encrypted with a password or Touch ID. Similarly, Android devices are also capable of the same functionality.
- The device encryption will help the employer to enable work from home or remote options as the device encryption will protect the information stored in the device.
- We store our confidential details in our computer & smartphones. So it’s mandatory to protect such data to prevent unauthorized access.
- A data breach in an organization may result in severe regulatory charges & reputational loss, having a strong encryption technology could prevent such incidents & protect the organization.
- Encryption gives a confidence that the data is safe & possibility of unauthorized access is very low.
Disadvantages of Encryption
- Forgetting passwords is a common human behavior. When it comes to encryption, if a user forgets the password, recovering the data is not easy. However, in some cases it’s impossible to access the data again.
- In the event of a Hardware failure, the encryption of the device will be a barrier to recover the data or will make it more complicated.
- Full disk encryption may slow down the performance of the computer as the drive needs to be decrypted at the time of attempting to read the data.
How to enable device encryption?
You may follow these links to find out the way to Encrypt your device.