Internet has made people’s lives a lot different and better. There are several ways you can do with it. These days, bank transactions and shopping for some items can be done using the Internet. Because of this, there has been a great need for personal and business information security.
When you search for the definition of encryption on the Internet, you will be given several and mostly technical definitions. The most simple and concise explanation for people who are not so techie is this:
“Encryption is a technique used to help safeguard private information while it is sent via the Internet.”
Encryption is mostly used for very confidential information that is to be passed on from one computer to another. Typically, big companies, mobile phones, banks and online e-commerce make use of this technique to see to it that only the intended recipient can get access to the information they are sending.
There are a few other ways by which encryption takes as roles in our everyday communication. For one, it can be used to protect any saved information in the computer from unauthorized access. If you would rather keep the information or file private, you can even use encryption to make sure no one gets to read a particular file even person’s who have access to your personal computer.
For two, like what the definition above suggests, it can be used to protect information as it is transported from one computer to another through a series of electrical cords. We all know that many hackers exist today and that it is unsafe to just transmit private information over the Internet. This technique prevents anyone from invading a restricted file.
For three, encryption helps to prevent and identify inadvertent or intentional modifications in your data and it can also help you identify whether the author of the document is the same person who sent it.
However, just like any other technology, encryption also has its fair share of disadvantages. One of these is its inability to deter anyone from deleting a file completely.
Another disadvantage is the fact that an encryption program can be modified. Anyone can retrieve a document that is encrypted by either modifying the program to allow the use of another key different from the one you supplied or just by recording all encryption keys and save in a special file for later recovery.
There is also a possibility that anyone can find a way to decode encrypted messages using previous and effective decoding method with the same algorithm as yours. Additionally, encryptions can be accessed before encryption and after decryption. Thus, any document whether confidential or not is still not completely protected from hackers.
The restrictions mentioned only explain that encryption is not the total security approach for your computer but just a part of an overall protection strategy. There is a need for a more complex and secure way of protecting a document, especially if it is that confidential. Encryption helps, of course, but it is not enough to make a very private information secured.
