Introducing encryption

Encryption is the process of converting data into a format where only an authorized person is able to access it. Such conversion is called encoding. Data is encoded using an encryption key; an encryption key is a random string containing some random characters or bits. The randomness of the characters in a key is achieved by using algorithms to ensure that each key is unique and unpredictable.

There are two popular types of encryption:

• Symmetric encryption
• Asymmetric encryption

Symmetric encryption

Symmetric encryption uses a single key in order to encrypt or decrypt data. It uses a secret key that can be a number, a word, or a string of random characters. This key is used with an encryption algorithm...