Ways in Which Encryption Technology Can Be Utilized

Due to evergreen advancement and increased adaption of technology and rising rates of sophisticated cyber-crimes, digital security has become increasingly essential to protect us while shopping, banking and even communicating. Furthermore, every second sensitive information, be it debit card numbers or health records, being transmitted through the internet, reminds us that cybersecurity shouldn’t be taken for granted.

For making digital security better and keeping users safe, encryption plays one of the essential roles. It helps you protect your financial details and passwords during online banking, phone conversations and much more. Additionally, it also helps by encrypting various devices like a smartphone, which can prove helpful to protect data if the device gets stolen. Another example, every time you buy something with a credit card, make a phone call or even transfer money online, encryption gives this transaction the necessary confidentiality and security.

By looking at the above example, we can see how critical safeguarding personal data and information is to customers, which shows why all the documents and other important things should be encrypted.

Encryption is a cryptography-based security method that involves mathematical algorithms and scrambling text.

Put simply, it is the process of protecting data by using a secret code so that it remains inaccessible and hidden from unauthorized users. The person who has the encryption key can access the data.

Moreover, one of the best advantages it offers is that, even if a hacker recovered the string of random text, he will not be able to decrypt your data unless he had the key, which would allow him to decrypt it. In fact, the company that stores your data cannot access the content either.

So, now you must be wondering how this technology can be used in our lives. Well, there are many interesting ways in which you already use encryption.

Let’s read below to know more.

These days, browsing the internet is an everyday activity. For protecting the data online, encryption comes in the form of SSL certificates. These certificates can be bought by the site owners to increase the security of their website.

Many recognized websites use the encryption offered by SSL technology. If a site uses encryption or SSL measures, you will see visible trust indicators like a padlock icon in the address bar and URL starting with HTTPS and especially for e-commerce website you will even see the legally registered organization name in the Green bar.

Moreover, an active SSL certificate makes sure your sensitive information passed on the website, such as phone numbers, credit card numbers, IDs is secured. It also means all your data being transferred is encrypted for security and privacy reasons.

Webmail services such as Google and Hotmail also offer SSL encryption and even made it their default option in 2010. From 2014, the company started to encrypt all the emails as they move through Google’s data centers and servers. Also, it uses various forms of encryption.

Financial industries are required to abide by strict encryption requirements as private information is transferred during online banking such as credit card numbers.

Most people see encryption technology in action when transferring or checking their money, and during their daily online activities. However, financial institutions must also encrypt material submitted via online forms that users can use to provide details on unauthorized transactions or to apply for a loan.

Also, if the information that is transferred contains sensitive information or your financial details, it must be encrypted.

Encryption technology is also available in multiple messaging tools such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

A report revealed that 65 billion WhatsApp messages are exchanged per day. With this, it is critical to protect the sensitive information of the users.

In fact, WhatsApp has secured the privacy of its users by implementing complete end-to-end encryption in its messenger application. It means all your photos, videos, messages, files, voice messages are 100% secured.

End-to-end encryption makes sure that only the intended person you’re communicating with can read the message, which means the message cannot be decrypted even by the WhatsApp. It became possible since WhatsApp started storing their messages on the WhatsApp server layered with a separate encrypted channel.

Various storage platforms such as Google Drive and Dropbox greatly emphasize on the security of the platform.

Both the platforms protect files in transit between apps and servers, but also at rest, which is helpful for all these millions of users to be sure all their important data is securely stored online.

Banks use Hardware Security Module (HSM) encryption method to protect your PIN and other private banking information while the transaction is in transit in the network.

HSM encryption is available in many types, but its main function is to encrypt the 4 to 6 digit PIN of each person using the ATM. Then, the PIN is decrypted at the HSM side to execute and validate the transaction or withdrawal of money.

This method also makes sure that hackers don’t get their hands on your PIN in case they intercept the network data in transmit.

Besides the above ways, cryptography plays an important role in encrypting modern-day applications such as digital signatures. A digital signature is a mathematical scheme to demonstrate the authenticity of documents or digital messages. It is technically a string of bits that is generated and authenticated by public key encryption.

While transacting online, people don’t think about encryption and online security unless something goes wrong. However, encryption allows individuals to take part in their favorite online or digital activities without worrying about outsiders seeing or accessing their data. Undoubtedly, encryption is one of the best ways to keep your digital data secure.