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In today's information technology society, all of our personal information is potentially subject to tracking by hackers who infiltrate and steal. For an ordinary user, our confidential information sometimes is just messages, chat lines, ordinary documents, but at a higher level this causes extremely serious consequences for companies, corporations because confidential information if leaked will cause very large damages.
However, if your important data is secured and encrypted, it will be very difficult for hackers to track and steal.
What is Data Encryption?
Data encryption is the use of computer algorithms to transform original data into structured data completely different from the original that cannot be read by the naked eye or using simple software to read, because it does not comply with standard data formats. This helps to maximize information security.
Each data encryption algorithm has its own characteristics but usually uses 'encryption keys' (Key), the more complex the algorithm, the higher the security and the longer processing time. Data encryption algorithms often have accompanying decryption algorithms, but sometimes one-way encryption mechanisms that cannot be decrypted are used as in the case of processing password storage.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Data Encryption:
- Advantages are most clearly seen in the security of information against threats such as hackers, spyware...
- Disadvantages: Consumes CPU resources for processing each data unit, in some cases slows down processing so sometimes it is necessary to balance between security and processing speed, latency of related systems.
Not only that, encrypted data often has larger file sizes, making storage and transmission processes more costly.
Why is Data Encryption So Important?
Data encryption is simply adding an extra layer of security to data by converting it into a different form through a key with custom rules, so even if your data is stolen, decrypting the data is very difficult. A simple example of data encryption. If you only set a password for your computer, hacker only needs a few tricks to bypass the password layer and access the data, or simply plug the storage device into another system. However, if the data is encrypted, even if the data is obtained, it is very difficult to decrypt it as originally if there is no key.
But that's just for files on your computer, what about your messages, emails sent over the Internet? There is an encryption method called end-to-end that some applications are using nowadays such as Facebook, WhatsApp
Understanding End-to-End Encryption
End-to-end Encryption (E2EE) is an encryption method in which only the communicating parties can understand the encrypted message. This means that even the owner of the data transmission channel, Internet service providers or hackers, cannot easily know the information the communicating parties are transmitting.
This encryption method uses a key that belongs to the parties directly communicating and transmitting information, data, and without this key, no third party can decrypt the data.
How End-to-End Encryption Works
An example of how End-to-End works, person A sends a message to person B. Each of them starts transmitting a public key and a private key
When person A sends a message to person B, the content of the message is encrypted using the private key and combined with the public key. When person B receives the information, he/she uses his/her private key to decrypt that information and read person A's message as usual.
This is called the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol
Understanding Public and Private Keys
Public and private keys are both generated from random number sequences
As the name suggests, everyone will see the public key, while the private key is only with the decryption authority. The public key will encrypt the data, only decrypted by the private key and vice versa.
So, when person A sends a message to person B, the data will be encrypted with a public key, and person B, when receiving the message, will decrypt it with person B's private key, and vice versa.
The Importance of Data Encryption
In reality, our personal data is extremely important. This is not only about privacy, some companies may use our personal data for advertising purposes, some organizations may use our personal data to track us for their purposes. In general, the more detailed the data is leaked, the more trouble it brings us.
The good news is that data encryption is becoming more accessible. Currently, when encrypting data, we will no longer need to access encryption equations, numbers, or complex encryption methods. There are many tools or methods to do this easily and intuitively, and we all need to immediately use these tools to protect our data before waiting for professionals to do this.
Some individuals may underestimate this matter, believing that their online data is unimportant. However, in reality, information such as bank account details, health management records, or work documents, if exposed, can lead to significant damage beyond what we might imagine.
Therefore, whether early or late, protect yourself with personal data encryption methods.
In addition to encrypting local data on computers or storage devices, you should also consider security methods such as I2P or VPN, Tor,.. These are types of encrypted end-to-end connections that help you browse the web, transmit data much more securely without significantly affecting processing speed. Refer to Comparison of I2P, Tor, and VPN
The above are some basic aspects of data encryption. Right now, you should protect your data with simple measures. Also, when using Facebook, you should pay attention to preventing Facebook from collecting information for advertising, as this is also a crucial issue related to personal information security on the Internet.
During use, users often accidentally delete important data such as images, videos, and they do not know how to recover this important data. There are many software tools that support data recovery very well like Recuva .... If you fall into this case, you can completely use these software tools to recover data on your computer's hard drive
