Encryption.

Hi folks, Often we come across this word Encryption, and then number of questions starts to arise like, what does this word encryption refer to?, How does it works?  well now I m going to discuss these things here with you...

First thing that we need to know is What is Encryption?   Encryption is the process of transforming Information (plain text) to unreadable hash using an algorithm called Cipher. and the reverse process that is to make the encrypted data readable again, is called Decryption.  In more practical terms, the encryption methods apply a certain routine to information so that it’s no longer recognizable as it’s original. With the right key, that was determined before encrypting the data and the accompanying routine for decrypting the information, the original information can be recovered. Cryptography was first pioneered many centuries ago.It was the work of specialists to create encryption routines for
the military mainly. Cryptography remained something mainly for the military for quite long. Up until a century ago almost entirely and only in the last 20 to 30 years has it become mainstream. Nowadays it’s being used all around us; in ATM cards, on e-commerce websites, in game consoles, for the distribution of copyrighted music and film and many more applications. This is all possible due to the rise of the computer and readily available gross amounts of computing power. Considering the computing power available nowadays we’re actually encrypting very little and leaving the door right open to a lot of sensitive data. Why do we need to encryption more? If you don’t all ready know it, without encryption there is no such thing as privacy. At least not for your data. It’s all 1′s and 0′s but doesn’t take a genius at all to recognize the data it represents if it’s not encrypted when intercepted. And there are literally thousands of ways to intercept data, but I’ll list some common ways.

• Internet is probably the most dangerous place for your data as concerned with privacy. If you don’t use a encrypted connection with the server, pretty much anybody can get their hands on your full communication. People in your local network, your internet provider, the host of the web-site you’re visiting, proxies you’re tunnelled through even if they are transparent and you don’t even notice or know, any carrier of your traffic which can be pretty much any arbitrary person for all you know because routes are chosen dynamically and you have very little to no influence on that and last but not least someone who specifically targets your communication being either a hacker, the government or who knows who.
• E-mail is pretty much the same story as for internet
• Instant messaging is also just as weak as the whole rest of the internet!
• WiFi is a special case all by itself. Special for the fact that it’s extremely dangerous. This is because the information is just put straight into the air for anybody to receive. With the right antenna this can even be from quite far away. Further away than you can be from the access point. Can you imagine what happens if this is unencrypted, or encrypted with some weak encryption such as wep?
• USB-sticks might get stolen or lost. Just plug ‘m in, thanks to plug ‘n play, no problem. The average grandmother can do that. Even encrypted and supposedly safe USB sticks might very well turn out to be very insecure after all.
• External hard drives as you might have figured suffer from pretty much the same issues as USB-sticks except for that less of them are out there who actually try and protect your data.
• Personal Computers get stolen. But a bigger risk might be that other people use them as well. Maybe you don’t fear your husband, wife or maybe even the kids wandering around through your computer, but what about the friends and family who visit your house. Maybe even friends of friends during a party? And did you ever think about the possibility that you might ever become under criminal or tax fraud investigation. You don’t even have to be guilty to be investigated, that’s the ‘beauty’. But then you say, I’ve got my account protected with a password and I’ve made my files private, isn’t that enough? NO! Plain simple NO! All though it will prevent the occasional access to your files it won’t stop the more determent of mind. If they have full access to the hardware, e.g. stolen computer or you’re under investigation, then it’s very easy, but even with limited access it’s possible. Some years ago at a institution we were able to retrieve a very sophisticated password from a machine with a padlock on the case, the HDD as only boot device and bios password set. And then there still is the malware that endangers your data.
• Laptops are the same as PC’s except for that they are stolen much easier, more often, get in the range of different people more easily and that customs have the right to search them if you travel abroad.
Encrypting more, doesn’t that sound like a wise decision?