Your important information can be kept confidential in more than one way, and a simple way is to save all your secret data and files on your memory card or USB flash drive that only you can access. But another way to do that, which we all know, is encryption, and generally encrypted information is a way to store information confidentially so that only those who have the secret key can understand it. Encryption has gone through many stages throughout history, with one of the most important being in the Roman era, and even the use of computers in our current era for encryption for easy coding and writing codes easily, and other things that made it easier due to the presence of computers among us.
Most encryption systems belong to two main types of encryption, as follows in detail.
symmetric-key encryption
In this encryption, each device has a secret key (code) through which it can encrypt a set of information before sending it to another system over the network. This system requires that every computer receiving this encrypted information must be aware of it so that the same keys can be installed on every device. It is necessary for every computer to know the secret key in order to easily decrypt it. For example, if you want to send a message to a friend but the message is encrypted, you will inform them, for example, that each letter in the message will be replaced with the following letter, meaning if you want to write the letter A, you will write letter B instead. You have now informed a trusted friend of your secret key for the message, so when they read the message, they will understand that B refers to A and G refers to H, and they can understand the entire message. The key point in this example is that the secret key is essential, and without it, there will be no encryption.
public-key encryption
This type uses a mixture of a private key and a public key. Your device knows the private key, while the public key is given to any other device with whom you want to communicate securely or in an encrypted manner. When encrypting a message, the computer uses this public key obtained from the main computer, then uses its private key, meaning the sending computer encrypts the file using symmetric-key encryption, then encrypts the symmetric-key using another key, which is the public key for the receiving computer. On the other side, the receiving computer decrypts the symmetric-key using its private key, then uses the symmetric-key to decrypt the encrypted message or file.
How do I know if I am using encryption while browsing?
You can know if you are using a secure protocol or encryption while browsing now or not; you will find in the browser’s address bar at the top that the word “http” has changed to “https,” where the letter S has been added to it, which stands for Secure. You will also find the lock symbol in the browser’s bottom bar, all indicating that your browser is now using secure protocols and encryption.
Combining the two types of encryption
Most encryption systems use symmetric-key encryption and public-key encryption, but how?!! A symmetric-key encryption is created by one of the two devices, then sent to the other device through public-key encryption. After that, they can use the symmetric-key after decrypting it, of course. After the encryption is finished, the symmetric-key is changed to a new key for another set of information.
Hash and algorithms
Encryption is generally based on a value called a hash value, which is derived from changing the value of a variable using a hashing algorithm system. The important thing in all of this is that it is almost impossible to predict the original variable without knowing this hashing algorithm. This is the information used to convert the variable value to the hash value or the resulting value from encryption.. Don’t worry, everything will become clear with this example.
Variable number: 50,102 Secret key: x 173 Resulting value: 8,667,646
And now if it seems difficult to say that the value 8,667,646 is a result of multiplying 50,102 with 173, but if you know that the number used for multiplication is 173, you can easily calculate the value 50,102. However, public-key encryption is more complex than that, but this is the basic idea where complex and long algorithms are used for encryption, ranging from 40 bits to 128 bits, or even a number. Imagine that the 128 number could be 3,402,823,669,209,384,634,633,746,074,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, a mixture of different numbers, exactly like finding a specific grain of sand in a wide desert.
Identity Confirmation
Encryption plays a very important role in the confidentiality of data transmitted from one device to another. We must not forget that there is another factor, as important as encryption, and that is authentication or identity confirmation. It is about ensuring that the information being encrypted is from a trusted source, and knowing who created this information and that it has not been altered or forged from the original information. There are many types of authentication, such as passwords, where the username is compared with the password, and if there is a match, the person is identified as trusted and allowed to access the required information. If authentication fails, the user is not allowed to use the original person’s permissions, of course, we all know passwords and their usage, and there is no need to elaborate on them. But I wanted to clarify the concept of authentication for you further, as well as password cards, and more recently, you will also find more common types, such as fingerprints, face recognition, and other sensitive devices for voice recognition.
Information Consistency
Now we have a third operation that is no less important than the previous ones, and that is to ensure that the information has not been damaged or its value changed during transmission or encryption, and that it has not been subjected to any kind of loss. This is an important factor during the information transfer and encryption process, and there are many ways to do that. The simplest and least reliable way is parity check, which is an ancient method based on converting the transmitted information into 0s and 1s and determining whether the number of 0s or 1s is odd or even during transmission and comparing it during reception, for example, if the value of 1 is calculated in the transmitted information and it is 155, this is an odd number. If the received information is also an odd number, it allows it to pass. However, as I told you, this method is not 100% accurate because during the transmission of the information, two numbers from the 1 category can change, and the number of 1s remains an odd number, or two 0s change together, or a 0 and a 1 change at the same time, and the result is still an odd number, so this is not precise, and the result is not one. Therefore, there are other more accurate methods like checksum, which calculates the sum of the 0s and 1s as we explained in this topic.
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If the value is equal on both sides during transmission and reception, the information is allowed to pass. Let’s not forget cyclic redundancy. All these processes give you a high degree of confidentiality during the transfer of your information, and you should know that the information transferred over the internet is more secure than any other method, such as wireless communications and other means that cause a lot of loss. Transferring information over the internet goes through many stages that involve many processes such as encryption, authentication, and thorough examination of the information, allowing you to maintain confidentiality and security during the transfer of your information and safely deliver it to the other side… I hope the concept has reached you.
