Every second, billions of sensitive transactions are protected as they flow across the internet—bank transfers, medical records, confidential business communications and personal messages. None of this would be possible without encryption, the foundation that keeps our digital world secure.

For organisations creating, processing or transmitting sensitive data, understanding encryption is no longer optional. Regulatory frameworks mandate it, customers expect it, and security incidents increasingly exploit its absence or misconfiguration. 

What is Encryption? 

Encryption is the process of transforming readable information (plaintext) into an unintelligible, scrambled form (ciphertext) using a mathematical algorithm and a secret key. Only authorised parties possessing the correct key can reverse the transformation and recover the original information. 

The encryption we all use day-to-day is applied without you even knowing it’s there, facilitated by applications or within browsers, so you would be forgiven for being unaware of it. A more visible example of encryption can be seen in cybercrime, where it is weaponised. Ransomware attacks typically scramble an organisations data into an unreadable form (encrypted) allowing the cyber criminals to demand a ransom to provide the correct key to unscramble it.  

The security of any encryption system rests on a single principle: without the correct key, breaking the mathematical algorithm needs to be infeasible with current computing capabilities. This principle has remained the case for 40+ years with the mathematical algorithms we have used across that period. As an example, to ‘crack  a common encryption algorithm - AES-256 with all the computing power available today, would require more time than the universe has existed. Of course, quantum computing changes this dynamic significantly and we cover this in more detail here in our blog What is post quantum crytography. 

The Three States of Data 

To understand why multiple encryption methods exist, we must recognise that data exists in three distinct states, each presenting unique security challenges. 

Data at rest refers to information stored on physical or virtual storage systems—databases, hard drives, cloud storage, and backup systems. This data faces threats from unauthorised access, physical theft of storage devices, and insider threats. Asan example, a stolen laptop or compromised server could expose vast quantities of sensitive information if that data is not properly encrypted. 

Data in transit describes information actively moving between locations—transmitted across networks, sent between devices, or technical services. As data travels across networks, it becomes vulnerable to interception. Attackers can eavesdrop on network traffic at vulnerable network points. 

Data in use represents information actively being processed—used by applications, processed by cloud services, or manipulated via business processes. Typically, data has to be decrypted and readable before any useful work can be performed, creating an obvious security gap during processing. 

Why Encryption Alone Is Not Enough 

You may be forgiven for thinking that simply encrypting information mitigates all risk and threats, but while encryption provides confidentiality (keeping data secret) it does not inherently provide integrity (ensuring data has not been tampered with) or authenticity (confirming the sender's identity). 

Consider this scenario: Alice encrypts a message to Bob saying "Please transfer £100 to account A". An attacker intercepts the ciphertext. Even without reading the message, they might modify specific bits in predictable ways. When Bob decrypts the modified ciphertext, it might read "Transfer £1000 to account B". Confidentiality was maintained, but integrity was compromised. 

To address this, we employ authenticated encryption, which combines encryption with message authentication codes to simultaneously ensure both confidentiality and integrity. Modern encryption standards provide this as a single, unified operation. 

The Human Element: Where Encryption Fails 

Encryption is only as strong as its weakest link and that link is usually human behaviour or implementation errors, not the weakness of the algorithms used. 

The most common encryption failures include weak passwords that can be guessed or cracked, key reuse across multiple systems allowing one compromise to cascade, poor key storage such as hardcoding encryption keys in source code, implementation vulnerabilities that exploit error handling, and social engineering that tricks users into revealing keys or bypassing encryption altogether. 

Even the most sophisticated encryption algorithm provides zero security if the key is written on a Post-It attached to the monitor. 

Encryption in Practice 

In our digital life, encryption works invisibly but constantly. When you visit a website with HTTPS, encryption protects your connection from eavesdropping. When you send a message through encrypted messaging apps, end-to-end encryption ensures only the recipient can read it. When you store files in cloud services, encryption protects your data from unauthorised access. 

However, understanding what encryption protects—and what it does not—is critical. Encryption provides a very specific security control, it protects data from unauthorised access. This control will mitigate several risks but it will not address all of the cyber threats your organisation faces. It does not protect against malware on your device, and it does not hide metadata like who you are communicating with and when, and it does not prevent authorised users from misusing legitimately accessed data. 

Therefore, practical implementation of encryption in your organisation should be done as part of your security controls, complimenting other capabilities to provide defence in depth. 

How Unsung Helps with Encryption and Key Management 

At Unsung, we understand that effective encryption is not simply a technology challenge. It depends on several business considerations, such as where your data resides, its sensitivity, how it is used in your business applications and the cyber threats specific to your sector or organisation. From a technology lens, effective encryption relies on a performant, accessible PKI capability, embedding cryptographic controls into your applications and proper key management.  

Our specialists help organisations implement encryption strategies that go beyond selecting algorithms to address the operational realities of key lifecycle management. 

We assess your current cryptographic practices, identify process and technology gaps, and design solutions that balance security with operational requirements. Whether you need to implement Hardware Security Modules for key protection, establish certificate-based encryption infrastructure, or prepare for post-quantum cryptography, our vendor-neutral expertise guides you to fit-for-purpose solutions. 

Contact Unsung to discuss how we can help strengthen your organisation's encryption and key management practices.

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