In this modern world where everyone is posting and consuming a lot of information from the internet, it is also an open window for attackers to get access to someone’s personal data and tamper with it or make use of it for the loss of the owner, thus it becomes quite dangerous to let the data travel over the internet in it original format. This can be done using encryption of data that converts the data into some bogus information which will not be useful for anyone who doesn’t know how we gain back the original text. In this article how we can make use of Symmetric Encryption to convert plaintext into cipher text and then decrypt this cipher text back to the plain text.
What is Symmetric Encryption?
When the plaintext is encrypted and decrypted using the same key, it is know as symmetric encryption. It is also known as “shared-key” or “private-key” encrytption.
The key is a piece of a shared secret between the two parties involved hence it is ‘shared-key‘ and is kept secret, hence the name ‘private-key‘ is justified.
Working on Symmetric Encryption
These operations are performed to share the message securely over the network using the symmetric encryption technique.
Key Generation
This is the first step in the symmetric encryption technique in which the private key needs to be chosen and must be securely communicated/ transferred over the network for the further use.
Encryption
In this step, the plaintext (this is the original message to be sent over the network) is converted to some bogus, unintelligible text called the ciphertext using the shared secret key and the some algorithm.
Transfer of CipherText
In this step the ciphertext is transferred over the network, since we have encrypted the original message even if this ciphertext is intercepted it will be unintelligible to the interceptor unless and until our shared secret key and algorithm is also compromised.
Decryption
This is the last step where the receiver uses the reverse encryption algorithm and the shared secret key to convert the ciphertext back to the plaintext this is called decryption.
Challenges of Symmetric Encryption
Although symmetric encryption is considered very much because of its speed and efficiency, it also has some chanlleges:
- The main challenge is securely sharing the secret key because if this key is compromised the entire communication is compromised.
- Storing the key securely is also a major challenge for this technique.
- As the number of users is increasing day-by-day, the complexity of managing and securely sharing these secret keys will increase exponentially.
Frequently Asked Questions on Symmetric Encryption – FAQs
What is encryption?
Encryption refers to converting the plaintext into some piece of bogus-text which is unintelligible to someone how do not know how to convert it back to plaintext.
What is decryption?
Decryption refers to converting the ciphertext back to the plaintext by applying the reverse encryption algorithm.
What is a key ?
A key is some piece of information which is used to convert the plaintext into ciphertext using some encryption algorithm.
What is difference between symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption?
In asymmetric encryption a pair of keys are used public key and private key, for encryption and decryption, whilst in symmetric encryption a single secret key is used for both encryption and decryption.