What are hashing and encryption? Are they the same thing? These are the questions we will be answering in this article. Privacy and effectiveness are the two most important factors in any sector including the communication system. In a communication system, we call them hashing and encryption. If you are completely naive about these terms, you may understand them well. But if you have a little understanding of a little of these, you may still be confused about them.
A lot of people think that these are the same thing. But to disappoint them, these are two different things but related to each other. The biggest difference between these two is reversibility. You can reverse the encryption with the decryption key, but you can not reverse hashing. Hashing is an irreversible process. In this article, we will discuss the following topics:
● What is Hashing?
● What is Encryption?
● Difference between Hashing and Encryption
Let’s start with hashing.
What is Hashing?
In simple words, hashing is an irreversible process that involves an algorithm to receive information and change it to a hash value. We also call hash value the hash digest. The length of the generated hash is fixed and shorter than the original length of data. The smallest variation in the input causes a great change in the output. It is almost impossible for a human to revert the hash value into its original form.
You can also define it as a fixed number obtained from a sequence of text. The hash value is generated in such a manner that a different text will have a different hash value. By all this, we can understand that the purpose of the hashing is to access the data and for other security reasons.
According to the rule of thumb, hashing will have the following properties:
● A known input will always result in a known output.
● Hashing is irreversible which means you can convert the out into input again.
● Different inputs will have different outputs.
● The smallest change in the input will change the output accordingly.
The algorithm we use for hashing is a process we use to convert random-sized data into fixed-sized data. There are many types of hashing algorithms we are using nowadays. Some of the hashing algorithms have been abandoned with the passage of time. We will discuss some hashing algorithm types here.
MD5
It was the most popular and widely used hashing algorithm. MD5 converts a 16-byte hash value into a 32-bit hexadecimal number. it has been abandoned due to some security issues.
SHA-0
It was the first version of the SHA hashing algorithm series. SHA-0 was replaced by SHA-1 very soon due to its susceptibility.
SHA-1
SHA-1 was also a popular hashing algorithm. It generates a 20-byte hash value which is equal to a forty-digit hexadecimal number. In 2010, it was replaced by SHA-2 due to security concerns.
SHA-2
SHA-2 might have the name of the SHA family, but it is very different from them. It has six hash functions. These six hash functions have hash values of 224, 256, 384, or 512 bits.
What is Encryption?
A process that converts data into a sequence of unreadable characters. Unlike hashing, the length of the converted data is not fixed. You can use the decryption key to revert this data. We use cryptographic keys to encrypt the data. All the communication is encrypted before transmitting and receiving. Encryption helps you protect your data while using the internet. Encrypted data is known as ciphertext, and decrypted data is known as plain text. There are two major types of encryption. The encryption will have the following properties:
● You can protect your data from online hacking.
● Only an authorized person can decrypt the data with the help of a decryption key.
● It makes auditing easy. In case of any privacy breach, you can find the culprit.
● You can trace the sender of the data.
Symmetrical Encryption
Symmetrical encryption is the most popular type of encryption. In this type of encryption, we use the same key for encryption and decryption. It means after encryption the sender transmits the key to the end-user to decrypt the data. It takes little time that’s why it is feasible from a financial point of view. Its process is faster than asymmetric encryption. In this method, you should have a safe way to transfer the key.
Asymmetrical Encryption
In this type of encryption, we generate two different keys that are different from each other. One key is a public key and the other one is a private key.
You can share the public key with anyone, but the private key is private, so you should only share it with those who you allow accessing the data. We can use both the public and the private keys to encrypt data, but the decryption key will be the opposite of the decryption key. With the digital signature in the public key encryption of cheap code signing certificate, recipients can detect any tampering. On the other hand, this process is slow as compared to symmetrical encryption.
Difference between Hashing and Encryption
We have discussed both hashing and encryption in detail. Now, we will discuss the difference between Hashing and Encryption. These two are different things but related to each other. We use hashing for authentication of the data. It identifies all the changes made to the data and converts it into a hash output. On the other hand, in encryption, we encrypt the data to maintain its privacy.
Hashing is a one-way function that means you can revert the hash output into the original data. On the other hand, encryption is a two-way function. You can decrypt the data after encryption to obtain the original data. All you need is a decryption key.
Hashing and encryption are two different things, but they do share some similarities. Both of these functions are great in securing information, messages, and data in the communication system. Both of these convert data to unreadable format. Hashing and encryption both have room for improvement in the future because the hackers are changing their tactics every day. This means hashing and encryption need to be up-to-date to tackle these tactics to secure the transmission.