Encryption
Encryption is an encoding technique in which a message is encoded by using an encryption algorithm in such a way that only authorized personnel can access the message or information. It is a special type of encoding that is used for transferring private data, for example sending a combination of username and password over the internet for email login. In encryption, data to be encrypted(called plain text) is transformed using an encryption algorithm like AES or RSA Encryption Algorithm using a secret key called a cipher. The encrypted data is called ciphertext, and finally, the secret key can be used by the intended recipient to convert it back to plain text.
There are two types of encryption algorithms – symmetric and asymmetric encryption. In the case of symmetric encryption, data is encoded and decoded with the help of the same key whereas in the case of Asymmetric encryption, data is encoded and decoded with the help of different keys, that is public key and private key.
Example: AES Encryption Algorithm but in the case of the asymmetric encryption algorithm, data is encrypted with the help of two keys, namely the public and private keys, like the RSA algorithm.
Encryption vs Encoding vs Hashing
Pre-Requisite: Encryption, Encoding, Hashing.
Encryption, Encoding, and Hahsing are similar kinds of things and have little difference between them. They all are used to change the format of the data or data transformation for different purposes. We will discuss them separately. Let us first discuss the definition of all these three processes and then we will move to see how they differ.