Encryption | What is it, and why is it important?

We’ve mentioned encryption and the importance of it, numerous times in our blog, plus we use it ourselves in our email service.

But why is it so important to online security?

Let us first approach this with what it is.

What is encryption and how does it work?

Encryption is essentiality the process of taking information, scrambling it (into ciphertext), then decrypting it when the information is received by its recipient, which has the key (algorithms) to decipher it.

You may be wondering, but why do this?

When sending information, there is a danger in where that data can be accessed by others (for example, hackers).

This can mean your sensitive data may be taken in a snap unless encryption is used to avoid this.

So, you’ve grasped what encryption is and why it’s important, however, there are more elements to learn about, like…

What is the different between symmetric and asymmetic encrypting systems?

We know that a ‘key’ is needed to decipher the data sent over to the intended person or people.

Symmetric and asymmetric encryption is the two different types of key systems that may be used.

• A symmetric system is the use of only one key to encrypt and decrypt the data, held by the sender and recipient only.
• An asymmetric system (or a public key encryption) involves two keys, one for encrypting, one for decrypting.
  The key for encrypting is shared with others (making it public) whilst the decrypting key is held only by the recipient, thus is the only one able to decipher the information.

And there we conclude what encryption is, and give some intel as to why we use it in our email service.

The fact is…

Using encryption in email creates a safer, more private space for our users.

Which is very true!

Make sure to learn more about our email service, or check out our blog content based on online security topics.

We have some exciting updates coming, so make sure to check our Instagram to see when this is live!