Popular methods of Encryption

When you think of encryption, you probably think of it being used by computers.  However, encryption is nothing new – it’s been around for thousands of years.  With the rise of ecommerce and doing business online, encryption is becoming essential to our daily lives.  SSL, VPNs, and file encryption are among many popular encryption methods that we use almost every day.

encryption

SSL Encryption

SSL is the most commonly used form of encryption.  Without it our bank websites, ecommerce, and even our email would fail to work.  Connections over the internet are not secure by their very nature.  Packets can be sniffed and the data you’re transmitting from yourself to a server can be intercepted.  SSL provides a layer of security and encodes your message when it’s sent to a website’s server.  This allows the secure transfer of credit card details and passwords alike.

File Encryption

File encryption is used by people who wish to store confidential files.  You can encrypt a part of your hard drive so all files you place on them are secured.  This is known as a virtual partition.  Software such as Truecrypt allows you to place files in a partition that is not readable by anyone else without a password.  You can transfer the virtual partition from computer to computer because it’s technically just a single file.  Think of it as a zip file containing many different file types – except it can only be opened or accessed with a password.

Virtual Private Networks

A VPN secures your entire connection.  All traffic you send to that VPN server will be encrypted.  When you request third party server a connection is first made to your VPN provider.  They will then download the data and send it to you encrypted.  This allows you to anonymously browse websites and other servers on the internet.  Nobody will be able to see what you’re doing on the internet except of course the VPN service.  To others including your ISP it will look like you’re connected to a single server, not actually browsing the internet.  Think of them as a middle man, they’re downloading the data for you and sending it to you.

My name is Alex Bailey and I’ve been blogging about computes including encryption methods,  Gmail, and other computer services for six years.

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20 Responses to “Popular methods of Encryption”

  1. andrewmicky

    Apr 17. 2012

    thanks for giving information

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    • TechCrates

      Oct 08. 2012

      You’re welcome Andrew

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  2. Peter

    Apr 18. 2012

    I wouldn’t dare to even imagine how our online world would be like without data encryption technology. This is something we actually use everyday and yet known very little about. Nice post Alex!

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    • TechCrates

      Apr 18. 2012

      Thanks for your comment Peter…

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  3. Darren

    Apr 18. 2012

    I am using a VPN, which has been effective since day one.

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  4. st50

    Apr 18. 2012

    File encryption is a lot easier then creating a virtual HD – many laptops come with built in encryption, you can simply right click a file or folder and encrypt it. Then to open it, you use the bio-metric finger port scanner.

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  5. John

    Apr 19. 2012

    The primary reason that lies behind encrypting a file is security. When you have any confidential or private data or file which may be a document, a picture, or any video and you do not want any body to access that file in your absence then you should opt for encrypting a file. You may think of setting a password for your computer but a password is not so much reliable as it can be decoded or bypassed by many without much difficulty.

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  6. Amy

    Apr 19. 2012

    Such an informative article! I am not a geek so I haven’t known anything about SSL and any of the listed encrypting methods you’ve listed above. Thanks for clearing me up!

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  7. Rashmi

    Apr 19. 2012

    Encryption is the best way to keep data safe. It is true what Peter said : We use it everyday but we know very little about it. This post is a start to start even more reading about Encryption.

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  8. nirmal

    Apr 19. 2012

    Thanx for your robust post dudekeep up the good work.

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  9. Elle

    Apr 19. 2012

    Encryption is very important because it enables us to save and back up our files.

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  10. Aadith

    Apr 26. 2012

    Encryption is very much important so that we have privacy …

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  11. cms

    May 08. 2012

    Thanks for the great post about encryption. SSL Encryption is new for me. I knew about the VPN and file encryption. Words are really simple to understand. I like such type of articles.

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  12. denialmicky

    May 17. 2012

    you probably think of it being used by computers. However, encryption is nothing new – it’s been around for thousands of years. With the rise of ecommerce and doing business online, encryption is becoming essential to our daily lives.

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  13. liagill

    May 17. 2012

    Thanks for sharing such a valuable information. It’s really amazing.

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  14. kunal

    May 22. 2012

    SSL is the most common and best way id encryption for online data today, i completely agree with you… thanks for your post, now i need to secure my data…

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  15. Dzon

    Jul 26. 2012

    Well at the moment tor is good for encryption
    Also Vpn networks are my favorite

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  16. TechCrates

    Oct 08. 2012

    Thanks for commenting guys!

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  17. TechCrates

    Sep 21. 2013

    This topic is more important than ever guys, so stay safe online + offline 🙂

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  18. securitycornor

    Jun 24. 2014

    When we talk about Encryption techniques, we have Advantages and Disadvantages.Recently hackers are targetting files with this encryption technique ,where they encryt the users important files and ask for Ransomware of about 300$ for decryption key.But this article is great peice work to education people about encryption.

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