Encryption Definition
Encryption is a security control that changes the format of information from human readable to arbitrary to prevent unauthorized access. Encryption engines convert human-readable plain text into incomprehensible ciphertext.
Encryption Types
Symmetric and asymmetric encryption are two types of encryption.
Symmetric Encryption
Symmetric encryption uses the same key for both encryption and decryption. A symmetric key is sometimes referred to as a shared secret because the sender must share the private key with authorized entities. The most widely used symmetric key cipher is AES.
Asymmetric Encryption
this form of encryption is also known as public key encryption. In asymmetric encryption, there are two keys for encryption and decryption. The decryption key in asymmetric encryption is kept secret, while the encryption key is publicly available.
Asymmetric encryption is the foundational Transport Layer Security (TLS) technology. The Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) encryption algorithm is currently the most widely used public key cipher.