We all are aware of the term 'Encryption'. A technology/process currently being used by companies to keep their data leakproof. If you're new to this terminology, the article will help you understand its basics, when it should be set up, and how to set it up.
What Is Data Encryption?
Data encryption is a method that enables companies to protect their important data from unauthorized access during transition. In simple terms, encryption is a method of safeguarding data from people you don't want to see it. When you enter your card details to complete a transaction on an e-commerce portal, encryption encrypts the information so that no one can breach or steal your data during the transfer process. Encryption is very useful if you want to secure sensitive information, emails, and cloud storage.
Encryption is a very straightforward process. You have a message, you encode it using a secret cipher, and only other people with the cipher can read it. Others who attempt to read it, just see garbage.
Every entity uses this method in its way. Whether it's to protect corporate secrets, secure classified information, or protect personal information, data encryption safeguards it in the way you want. The main purpose of having encryption in place is to protect the confidentiality of digital data transmitted via the Internet or other computer networks.
Methods of Encryption
There are different methods used to implement data encryption. Some of them are listed here for your reference.
Hashing
Hashing is a technique where a unique signature is created for a message or set of data. Hashing receives the data during transfer and creates a hash out of it. Each hash created is unique to the specific message. That is why any change or alteration made to the message can be easily tracked.
Symmetric Encryption:
In web hosting terminology, symmetric encryption is also known as private-key cryptography. In this method, a key is used to encrypt and decrypt the message. The key is responsible for transferring data from sender to recipient in secure manner. To ensure the encryption, both the encrypter and the decrypter should have access to the same key.
Asymmetric methods:
In the Asymmetric method, two keys are used for encryption or decryption. One is the public key and the other is the private key. A public key is freely available to everyone and is used to encrypt the message while the private key is used by the recipient to decrypt the message.
How does Data Encryption Help?
As already mentioned, Encryption helps organizations to reap the benefits of infrastructure as a service, while ensuring data privacy. Encryption also helps in reducing costs by adding multi-tenancy in a cloud environment. If you encrypt data before it enters the cloud, and hold control of the encryption keys, you can ensure complete data safety. Another key benefit of encryption is that encrypting your data on the cloud and holding your key is the safest mode.
Being a cloud service provider, the safety and security of customer's data should always be your priority. Hackers are always looking at an opportunity to sneak in into your information territory. That is why you should significantly improve your information security using Encryption and key management software, specially made for virtualized environments.
Tarun Gupta, CEO of Brainpulse Technologies, is a prolific author and digital marketing specialist. His insightful writings span SEO, content marketing, social media strategy, and email campaigns, offering invaluable expertise to businesses worldwide. Tarun’s contributions continue to shape the digital marketing landscape, guiding success in multiple niches.
August 3rd, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Your article was quite awesome to read. Thank you for providing this useful post which is really helpful for me in encryption side.