There are three key types of data encryption that are currently widely used to send information securely online: symmetric, asymmetric and hashing.

1. CRYPTOGRAPHY: THREE
TYPES OF ENCRYPTIONS
EXPLAINED
D o m e n Z a v r l

2. CRYPTOGRAPHY:
THREE TYPES OF
ENCRYPTIONS
EXPLAINED
There are three key types of data en-
cryption that are currently widely used
to send information securely online:
symmetric, asymmetric and hashing.
DOMEN ZAVRL
2

3. DOME N ZAVRL
3
ASYMMETRIC CRYPTOGRAPHY
With asymmetric cryptography, two separate
keys are used for data encryption and
decryption. These are known as the public
key and the private key. The public key can
be shared, but only one party has the private
key and both are required. It does not matter
whether it is the sender or the receiver that
has the private key – either can be used for
encryption or decryption – provided the
private key is never shared.
HASHING
Hashing is more of a verification method than
an encryption tool – data that has been hashed
is intended to be completely secure and not
intended for decryption. The contents of a
file are encrypted into a value of fixed length
based on a mathematical formula.
WITH ASYMMETRIC
CRYPTOGRAPHY,
TWO SEPARATE
KEYS ARE USED FOR
DATA ENCRYPTION
AND DECRYPTION.
SYMMETRIC CRYPTOGRAPHY
Symmetric cryptography allows data to be
encrypted and decrypted using a single key,
which is made available to both the sender
and the receiver. The benefits of this type of
encryption include speed of use. However, this
is only really suitable in situations where there
is no fear of interception when sharing the
key, as hackers can easily read data if a key is
compromised.

4. DOMEN ZAVRL
For more details about quantum key
distribution encryption, visit the
blog of Domen Zavrl.