Any business that is creating, collecting or consuming data needs to consider its protection/security as part of their data management strategy. One of the key methods to stop sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands is encryption.
What does encryption mean?
Encryption is a method of obscuring information so that only authorized entities can access it. It takes data and converts it from plaintext to what is known as ciphertext, that would appear to be unreadable and corrupted to the human eye.
A key would be needed in order to revert it back to the original state, herein lies the protection that encryption provides as only the authorized parties with this key are able to access the data. Part of the encryption / decryption process also verifies the integrity, to ensure no unauthorized changes could be made to the data since being encrypted. These points mitigate a number of the associated risks with data both stored at rest and in transit.
The use of encryption is becoming more and more commonplace as time goes by, illustrated by the inclusion of Bitlocker on some Windows 10 licenses. Once setup it greatly reduces data theft from lost, stolen, or decommissioned devices.
How does encryption work?
Encryption works by running cryptographic algorithms against the data which it transforms into ciphertext. Every instance of encryption will have a key that allows authorised parties to revert the data from the encrypted state back to its original.
There are two mains points in data management where encryption is carried out, when data is being transferred over a network (uploading to the web, sending emails) or storing the data at rest.
What methods of encryption can be used?
There are two main types of encryption methods, these are named Symmetrical & Asymmetrical.
As the name suggests, symmetrical encryption is when all authorized parties use an identical key during both the encryption and decryption process.
The Asymmetrical method has two unique but mathematically linked keys; private and public.
The public key is able to be shared openly while the private key must be protected. Data can be encrypted using either the private or public key, however can only be decrypted using the opposing associated key. For example, public key encrypted data requires the private key to decrypt and vice versa.