What are encryption algorithms for?
What are these sophisticated data protection technologies for? Primarily to protect information and privacy when working on the Internet. When you send an email, shop online, chat with friends, or store files in the cloud, this information needs to be protected.
You may not be aware of this, but many of the services use one or another encryption algorithm.
For note, the filtering techniques used in encryption depend on the matrix multiplication. Use an online matrix multiplication calculator to get calculations done easily. And in order to find the determinant of the matrix, the determinant calculator is on the way to help you.
End-to-end encryption
The popularity of end-to-end encryption has been growing in recent years and you may have heard of it. Much of the information you send over the internet is held by third parties. For example, email is stored by an email provider.
Even if the information is encrypted, encryption usually only happens in transit. When information is simply held by you or the recipient, this level of protection may not be available.
This does not apply to end-to-end encryption. When using it, only the sender and the recipient can read the information. Even your ISP or email provider cannot read the contents of your correspondence.
This is a great option for those who want to keep their secrets. Of course, even he does not guarantee 100% reliability, but it is better than nothing and better than most other encryption options.
End-to-end encryption is used in many popular messengers and email providers such as Signal, WhatsApp, ProtonMail.
HTTP
If you do not want anyone to know about your Internet habits, you should use HTTPS as much as possible. This protocol is used on the Internet and is often displayed as a closed padlock in the address bar of the browser. It is needed to ensure a secure connection using TLS (Transport Layer Security) or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption.
HTTPS authenticates your connection by requesting a digital or public key certificate, which must be signed by a trusted third party. HTTPS usually protects your data while it is in transit. This reduces its privacy, but HTTPS protection is still considered mandatory.
To make sure you are using HTTPS, put an extension like HTTPS Everywhere in your browser (from this Google Chrome link). It is available for popular browsers Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Firefox on Android.
Cloud storage encryption
Saving photos, videos, documents, and any other files in the cloud is very popular now. Naturally, you need to protect these files. Cloud storage offers some form of encryption.
There are three types of data that cloud storage works with: data at rest, data in transit, and data in operation. These names speak for themselves. In the first case, the data simply lies on the server, in the second it is transferred from one user to another, in the third one is working with files and they are difficult to encrypt.
Whether the data is encrypted or not depends on the particular provider. Some encrypt data at rest and in transit, others only encrypt data that they consider confidential. The types of encryption are also different for different providers. End-to-end encryption in cloud storage is not yet common.
However, most popular cloud storage services provide TLS / SSL for data transfer and sometimes data storage. Dropbox offers end-to-end encryption tools like Boxcryptor. They can encrypt files locally on your computer before you send them to the cloud.
Disk encryption
To provide a higher level of protection, you can encrypt files stored on your computer. This is where disk encryption comes in. You can encrypt the contents of the entire hard drive.
There are two ways to encrypt a disk:
- software encryption and
- hardware encryption.
Hardware encryption requires a self-encrypting drive. Data encryption and decryption on it occurs automatically, the user does not have to do anything himself.
It can be both hard drives and solid-state drives from popular manufacturers such as Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba. Naturally, they are more expensive than conventional media.
If this is too expensive for you, you can use software encryption of existing drives. There are many applications of this kind. Software encryption usually works in real-time, this is also called on-the-fly encryption. Data encryption and decryption are performed when loaded and saved to disk.
Depending on the specific program, the computer speed may slow down in different ways. This can be tolerated for the sake of data security. BitLocker uses AES with 128 and 256-bit keys. This makes the program a great option for protecting and maintaining data privacy.
Do you think you have nothing to hide and nothing to fear?
Either way, data collection is big business. Even if you are not afraid that someone will know what sites you visit on the Internet and what you buy, you are unlikely to be happy with the theft of credit card information and personal photos. This is where encryption comes in.
Here are its main advantages:
- Confidentiality. Many personal conversations and work correspondence must be kept secret. The same can be said about photographs, videos, documents. If you do not want to be seen by someone other than you and the recipient, use encryption.
- Security. Due to the pandemic, the use of the Internet has become more frequent than before, and in many cases, it is required to enter personal information. It is needed when buying something on the Internet, making an appointment at a clinic, paying taxes.
No one wants financial information or other personal data stolen from them. It will not protect 100%, it has vulnerabilities, but without it, it is much easier to access your data.
