In an era where security breaches seem to be regularly making the news, encryption is a very important topic to understand. It helps protect your data, your interactions, and your access even when attackers make end-runs around software defenses. It’s critical to use properly because, in a public network, there are still opportunities for data to leak out, even if your software is standing guard effectively.
But it’s not necessarily an easy topic; there is no magic wand you can wave to encrypt your data and effortlessly realize gains. Some recent high-profile stories have shown that even software developers don’t necessarily understand this topic well enough to make good decisions on how to best use encryption to protect their users.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the three most important types of encryption that protect users today, tell you why we need each one, and show you how each one addresses specific aspects of keeping systems secure.
