Encryption methods include hashing, symmetric encryption, and asymmetric encryption. Hashing creates a unique signature for a message, while symmetric encryption uses a private key to encrypt and decrypt data. Asymmetric encryption uses two keys for added security. All methods protect confidentiality, detect tampering, and verify identity.
There are three basic encryption methods: hashing, symmetric encryption, and asymmetric encryption. Each of these encryption methods has its own uses, advantages and disadvantages. Hashing, for example, is highly resistant to tampering, but it’s not as flexible as the other methods. All three forms of encryption are based on cryptography or the science of data coding.
Basic function
People use cryptography to change readable text, called plaintext, into a secret unreadable format, called ciphertext. Data encryption offers additional benefits beyond protecting the confidentiality of a message. These benefits include ensuring that messages have not been tampered with in transit and verifying the sender’s identity. All of these benefits can be realized using any of these encryption methods.
Hashed encryption
The first method of encryption, called hashing, creates a unique, fixed-length signature for a message or dataset. Hashes are created with an algorithm, or hash function, and people commonly use them to compare sets of data. Because a hash is unique to a specific message, even minor changes to that message result in a significantly different hash, thereby alerting a user to potential tampering.
A key difference between hashing and the other two encryption methods is that once the data is encrypted, the process cannot be reversed or decrypted. This means that even if a potential attacker were able to obtain a hash, they would not be able to use a decryption method to discover the original message content. Some common hashing algorithms are Message Digest 5 (MD5) and Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA).
Symmetric methods
Symmetric encryption, also called private key encryption, is one of the oldest and most secure encryption methods. The term “private key” comes from the fact that the key used to encrypt and decrypt data must remain secure because anyone with access to it can read the encrypted messages. A sender encrypts a message into ciphertext using a key, and the recipient uses the same key to decrypt it.
People can use this encryption method as a “stream” cipher or as a “block” cipher, depending on how much data is encrypted or decrypted at a time. A stream cipher encrypts data one character at a time as it is sent or received, while a block cipher processes fixed blocks of data. Common symmetric encryption algorithms include Data Encryption Standard (DES), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA).
Asymmetrical shapes
Asymmetric or public key cryptography is potentially more secure than symmetric encryption methods. This type of encryption uses two keys, a “private” key and a “public key”, to perform encryption and decryption. The use of two keys overcomes a major weakness in symmetric key cryptography, because a single key does not need to be handled securely between multiple users.
In asymmetric cryptography, a public key is freely available to everyone and is used to encrypt messages before sending them. A different private key remains with the recipient of encrypted text messages, who use it to decrypt them. Algorithms that use public key encryption methods include RSA and Diffie-Hellman.
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