Main content
Course: AP®︎/College Computer Science Principles > Unit 7
Lesson 5: Data encryption techniquesThe need for encryption
A huge amount of private data is sent around the Internet every day: emails with details about our personal lives, passwords that we type into login screens, tax documents that we upload to servers.
The Internet protocols send private data in packets on the same routes as everyone else's data, and unfortunately, attackers have figured out ways to look at the data whizzing around the Internet.
That's where encryption comes in: encrypting data means that we scramble the original data to hide the meaning of the text, while still making it possible for the data to be unscrambled using a secret key.
Encryption enables two people (or computers!) to share private information over open networks.
Now we'll dive into the two most common types of encryption used in securing Internet communications: symmetric encryption and public key encryption.
Want to join the conversation?
what is the best encryption used today?(7 votes)
There is no single best encryption algorithm. Each algorithm has its own strengths and weaknesses which makes some preferrable in certain situations over others. For example, AES encryption is much faster than RSA encryption. However, AES encryption requires you to get the key to the encrypted message recipient, and you need a new key for each message sender/receiver pair. With RSA encryption, you only need one public/private key pair per person and you can digitally sign files. However, RSA is very slow so it is not suitable to encrypt large amounts of data and it requires an established Public Key Infrastructure. The One-Time Pad is unbreakable and can be done by hand, however, the keys must be as long as the messages that are being encrypted and each key requires many securely-generated random numbers. Eliptic-Curve Cryptography uses smaller keys than RSA to provide the same level of security, but is more complicated to implement and the security greatly depends on the curve used.(12 votes)
does virus protection protect your computer from the data encryption?(4 votes)
Um... I think you've got it wrong. Computer protection protects from malware (e.g. viruses, worms, etc.), while data encryption scrambles the message, so that if a hacker(s) do manage to get through the computer protection, they would have to get past the encryption to view what you're sending.
So, in short, no, it does not protect the device from encryption, as you want the data to be protected.(4 votes)
- is it true that people hack you(4 votes)
- how is public key encryptions better as hacks can open it up easily(1 vote)
- Public key (asymmetric) encryption is not easy to break and it provides benefits over symmetric encryption. For example, the main problem with symmetric encryption is that you need to be able to share the key with the other party without anyone else seeing it. However, with asymmetric encryption, you can share the public key without worrying about people using it to decrypt your messages. Furthermore, symmetric encryption needs a key for every pair of senders/recipients. Meanwhile, each person needs a single asymmetric key pair, which reduces the number of keys needed as more people communicate. Additionally, digital signatures from an asymmetric cipher provide non-repudiation (the message sender cannot deny having sent the message), which is not something that is given by a digital signature from a symmetric cipher.(5 votes)
- So why would people hack your laptop. And why would they want to look at peoples private information..(2 votes)
one of the encryption he's trying to use a securing internet communications and public key.(2 votes)- nah what you need to do is buy google + it will make device totally safe ;)(1 vote)
The color analogy was clear. however, I was wondering if you could explain it with numbers?(2 votes)- what do I do if a computer virus attacks my laptop?(1 vote)
depending on the virus, if you already have everything backed up then the easiest thing to do besides for going and deleting it manually would be to powerwash your computer...(3 votes)
- what is the best encryption used today?(1 vote)
AES 256-bit encryption is the strongest and most robust encryption standard that is commercially available today. While it is theoretically true that AES 256-bit encryption is harder to crack than AES 128-bit encryption, AES 128-bit encryption has never been cracked.(2 votes)
why do we use encrypyion(1 vote)
Encryption is used to protect sensitive information from being accessed by unauthorized parties. It is a process of converting plain text into a coded message that can only be read by someone who has the decryption key. This makes it more difficult for hackers or other malicious actors to intercept and read the information, thus ensuring the confidentiality of the data being transmitted. Encryption is widely used in many areas such as online banking, e-commerce, email communication, and many more.(1 vote)
