What are the most secure ways to encrypt a device?

We are constantly surrounded by devices. Our phones and laptops contain a ton of information – both personal and work-related – and it is imperative for these devices to be encrypted.

Device encryption is basically the process of scrambling the data present on your device, making it indecipherable to anyone who tries to access it without authorisation, and ensuring quick & easy data backup & restoration. In simple terms, if your device gets lost or stolen, anyone who tries to access it without your password will see gibberish.

Understanding different types of encryption

There are various encryption techniques available, each with its own pros and cons. Let’s take a look at the ones that are widely used:

File-Level and Hard-Drive Encryption

File-Level Encryption encodes the data that is present in particular files and folders on your drive. If there is a breach, the information will be unreadable without a key. As the name suggests, this method ensures the protection of only selected files on a drive.

Hard-Drive Encryption uses software to process and convert all the data on your hard drive into unreadable code. This data can only be accessed by the administrator or someone who has the decryption key.

Symmetric Encryption

While in FLE and HDE, the encryption and decryption key need not be the same, however, that is not the case in Symmetric Encryption. In this technique, the same key is used for encryption and decryption. The algorithm that forms this technique is not complex, and hence, faster. Therefore, this method of encryption is used to transmit data in bulk.

The Advanced Encryption Standard is an algorithm that uses symmetric encryption techniques to encode the data. It is the more widely recommended method of encryption and is also used by governments to facilitate data backup and restore it.

Asymmetric Encryption

Asymmetric encryption is much more secure than symmetric because it uses a public and a private key to encrypt the data. The way it works is – the public key is accessible to all, but the private key is provided only to authorised personnel. If the data is encrypted using a private key, it can only be decrypted using a public key, and vice versa. The only downside to this encryption technique is that the process is quite extensive.

The Rivest-Shamir-Adleman is an algorithm that is based on the asymmetric encryption technique. This is another algorithm that is widely used. As the basis of the RSA method is asymmetric encryption, it is resource-heavy, and so it is inadvisable to use this encryption method for larger files. If the amount of data being encrypted using the RSA algorithm is greater than the number of bits in the encryption key, it is likely that the algorithm might break security.

Which is the safest method to secure a device?

The thing about using the “most secure” way to encrypt your device is that it may not necessarily contribute to the overall stability and performance of your system. As the security aspect improves, the algorithm becomes bulky and makes your device slower.

With HDE, all the data on your disk, including your system files, is encrypted. It may seem like an easy choice to make while setting up device encryption, but there are certain drawbacks to it. HDE only protects your system when it is turned off, and once you put in the decryption key, all your data is exposed to attackers while your system is on.

As you might have realised, the Advanced Encryption Standard comes off as the most secure way of encryption. Since it is used by governments, it can be considered as the standard against which all other algorithms are compared. AES is mostly invulnerable to malicious attacks, except brute force attack (which is a hacking method that uses trial and error to crack encryption keys).

The AES algorithm has lately been encrypted in the CPU of a system to increase the performance of the applications that use it. Numerous attempts have been made to try and break through this algorithm, but even with the newest technologies, these attempts have remained unsuccessful.

Conclusion

Device encryption ensures the privacy and security of your personal gadgets. An encryption method that is extremely secure might not necessarily be the best option for your device. To ensure that your data backup is efficient and before choosing a method for secure device encryption, you must assess the pros and cons of each, and pick the option that provides overall security to your device and enhances its performance.