Technology has made our lives easier and more efficient these days. But with the increase in the use of technology, it is important to protect your data from cyber-attacks. Organizations and individuals use different techniques and technologies to protect their data and one of them is encryption. Encryption is a process of using an algorithm to make it inaccessible or readable for an unknown person or unauthorized person.

Encryption is the easiest way to protect confidential information from unauthorized persons. Many organizations are using encryption to secure their data. Two common types of encryption are given below.

Symmetric cryptography or shared secret encryption

It is a common type of encryption which is used since the ancient Egyptian times; it uses a secret key called the shared secret to turn the data into unintelligible gibberish. To get access to the data the person needs the shared secret or code to unlock data. This is also called an encryption algorithm. The users having the code can change the key and result of encryption. It is called symmetric cryptography as the user on both ends uses the same key to lock and unlock the data.

The weakness in this system is that you need to share the secret key securely to the intended recipient. If any unauthorized person that can be a cybercriminal or enemy gets the secret key, they can access your data.

Public-key encryption or asymmetric cryptography

After facing the problem with sharing the secret key securely, different people made different interventions in the system of exchanging data. The need for a protected conversation or secured transaction without having any exchange keys was required. After a few years, a new method called the public key encryption or asymmetric cryptography was invented.

Asymmetric cryptography uses encryption that divides the key into two smaller keys. One of the keys is made public and one is kept private. The users encrypt the message with the recipient’s public key and the users on the other end of the recipient decrypt the data or message with their private key.

In this method, the user does not require the private key to send a secure message. To send the message you need the recipient’s public key. To the other end, a person with the private key can only access the data. These days the public key encryption is used behind every web server which offers a secure purchase. The transaction is encrypted without giving or taking the users a secret key.