{"id":3418,"date":"2017-08-11T03:56:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T11:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheapsslsecurity.com\/blog\/?p=3418"},"modified":"2021-04-02T03:44:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T11:44:47","slug":"explained-hashing-vs-encryption-vs-encoding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheapsslsecurity.com\/blog\/explained-hashing-vs-encryption-vs-encoding\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: Hashing vs. Encryption vs. Encoding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understand the difference between Hashing, Encryption, and Encoding<\/h2>\n

If you think that Hashing<\/em>, Encryption, <\/em>and Encoding<\/em> are the same thing, you are wrong! However, you\u2019re not alone. There is an awful lot of confusion surrounding these three terms. As similar as they may sound, they are all totally different things. Before getting down to business though, let\u2019s understand a few things first.<\/p>\n

From a security point of view what are the most important things when sending data\/message on the internet?<\/p>\n

First,<\/strong> you want to let the other person know that the message has been sent from you \u2013 not from anyone else.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> you want the message to be in the exact same format \u2013 without any alteration or modification.<\/p>\n

And third,<\/strong> you want your message to be protected from the reach of ill-intended people \u2013 hackers, fraudsters & other types of cyber criminals. These three functions can be designated as:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Identity Verification<\/li>\n
  2. Integrity<\/li>\n
  3. Confidentiality<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, how exactly is this done? Hashing <\/em>and Encryption<\/em> are the answers. Now you must be thinking \u2018Doesn’t that make them the same thing?\u2019 The answer is NO<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s start with Hashing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    What is Hashing?<\/h3>\n

    Let\u2019s try to imagine life without hashing. Suppose, it\u2019s someone\u2019s birthday and you decide to send a \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 message. Your geeky (and funny!) friend decides to have a bit of fun at your expense so he intercepts it and turns your \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019 message into a \u2018Rest in Peace\u2019 message (imagine the consequences!). This could happen and you wouldn\u2019t even know it (until you are at the receiving end of certain reactions!).<\/p>\n

    Jokes aside, Hashing protects the integrity of your data. It protects your data against potential alteration so that your data isn\u2019t changed one bit.<\/p>\n

    Basically, a hash is a number that is generated from the text through a hash algorithm. This number is smaller than the original text.<\/p>\n

    \"hashing<\/p>\n

    The algorithm is designed in such a way that no two hashes are the same for two different texts. And it is impossible (almost!) to go back from the hash value to the original text. It’s kind of like a cow moving on stairs \u2013 it can move upstairs but not down!! Anyway, looping back to our \u201chappy birthday\u201d message. Had you hashed your message, the intended recipient of your message would unhash the message and see a different value than what should come back. At that point, they\u2019ll know the message has been tampered with.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s one of the most indispensable properties of Hashing<\/em>\u2014its uniqueness. There cannot be the same hash value for different text. Even the tiniest bit of change\/modification will alter the hash value completely. This is called the Avalanche Effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s understand this with an example. In the below example, we have applied the SHA-1 algorithm. Let\u2019s see how it goes.<\/p>\n

    Text: <\/strong>Everybody loves donuts.<\/p>\n

    SHA-1 Hash value of the text above: <\/strong>daebbfdea9a516477d489f32c982a1ba1855bcd<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s not get involved in the donut debate (is there a debate?) and focus on hashing for the time being. Now if we make a tiny bit of change in the sentence above, the hash value will change entirely. Let’s see how it goes.<\/p>\n

    New text: <\/strong>Everybody loves donut.<\/p>\n

    SHA-1 Hash value of the new text: <\/strong>8f2bd584a1854d37f9e98f9ec4da6d757940f388<\/p>\n

    See how the hash value changed entirely when we removed the \u2018s\u2019 from Donuts<\/em>? That\u2019s what hashing does for you.<\/p>\n

    Uses of Hashing<\/h4>\n