Encryption over the Web: Why it matters

Encryption is what keeps your information safe when you use the internet. It scrambles data so that only the right person can read it. Without encryption, hackers could easily steal things like passwords, credit card numbers, or private messages.

How Does Encryption Work?

Imagine you want to send a secret note to a friend. Instead of writing it normally, you replace every letter with a different symbol. Only your friend, who knows the code, can change the symbols back into the real message. This is the basic idea of encryption—turning readable information into unreadable code, which can only be decoded by someone with the right key.

On the internet, computers do this automatically. When you visit a secure website (one that starts with HTTPS), your browser and the website agree on a secret key to encode and decode the data. This makes sure that if someone tries to intercept the data while it's being sent, all they see is meaningless text.

Types of Encryption

There are two main kinds of encryption used on the internet:

1. Symmetric Encryption

With symmetric encryption, the same key is used to both lock and unlock the data. It’s like having one password that both you and your friend use to read the secret messages. This type of encryption is fast but requires both people to share the same key securely. A common example is the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) cipher.

2. Asymmetric Encryption

Asymmetric encryption uses two keys: one to lock the data and another to unlock it. This is like a locked mailbox where anyone can drop a letter in (lock the data), but only the person with the right key can open the box and read it. This is a more secure solution, but slower than symmetric encryption. The RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) ciphers are common examples of assymetric encryption used over the internet.

Where Is Encryption Used?

Encryption is everywhere online. Here are some common uses:

• Websites: Secure websites use HTTPS, which encrypts the data between your browser and the site.

• Messaging Apps: Services like Signal and WhatsApp use end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and receiver can read the messages.

• Email: Some email providers, like Proton, use encryption to protect messages from being read by third parties.

• Online Banking & Shopping: Your financial data and banking systems are encrypted to keep it safe from threat actors.

• Wi-Fi Networks: Many Wi-Fi networks use encryption to prevent unauthorized access. WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access version 3) is the most recent kind of encryption, and uses a public key based authentication system.

Without encryption, hackers, governments, or even your internet provider could see everything you do online. Encryption helps protect your privacy, keeps your information safe, and makes the internet a more secure place for everyone.

Next time you browse a website, look for the little padlock symbol next to the URL—it's a sign that encryption is keeping your data safe!

Stay Secure!

-WRAVEN