Cybercriminals with minimum hacking skills can get into your emails, social media, and office servers by retrieving your password. The weaker your password is, the easier it gets to hack it.

However, a strong password alone isn't enough to prevent hacking. You would need PASSWORD ENCRYPTION to protect both passwords and unauthorized logins.

With malware, hacking, and phishing technologies becoming more effective each day, cybercriminals will have their Field Day with your email, social accounts, and secure servers.

Whatever passwords and firewalls you choose to add up, a person with a significant amount of knowledge and hacking tools will get his way with it.

Hence, no system in the world is 100% safe! However, you can minimize these hacking instances by choosing to encrypt your passwords.

What does it mean when a password is encrypted?

Password as an authentication key generally remains in a plain text format. Many firms that cannot purchase significant security will use simple text passwords.

With enough hacking skills, anyone can retrieve your plain-text password. So, your password isn't safe!

Password encryption will translate your plain-text password into another form or code that will only be accessible to people with a secret key, i.e., yourself!

Encrypting anything will add significant layers of firewalls, so even the hacker with enough skill and tools will fail before they can break through enough firewalls.

Plain-text password after encryption

The stronger the encryption, the likely it is the hacker will fail!

Encrypted data is commonly referred to as ciphertext, while unencrypted information is called plain-text

The industry-standard encryption will make your password inaccessible to people without a decryption key!

By industry-standard, we mean encryption technologies used by US militaries and later by big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM.

What are the different types of encryption formats available?

We referred to encrypting as adding firewalls, but that isn't technically true. Encryption works in a lot of different ways, and each encryption feature comes with its benefits.

To know how encryption functions to protect your password, let's continue reading.

Data encryption generally works in two ways, either one-way encrypting or two-way encrypting.

In one-way encryption, passwords are encrypted and stored in the database. It prevents clear passwords from being accessed by unauthorized users. Many companies commonly employ this.

The two-way encryption allows passwords to be stored in the database and decrypted when returned to an authorized client.

You can choose from four major password encryption types: Symmetric key, public key, hashed and salted.

The symmetric key protects your password by encrypting data. A hacker must steal the key to retrieve your password.

Sample of Symmetric encryption

The public key provides two different keys. One to encrypt a password and another to decrypt it.

Hashed method scrambles your password into random series of numbers and letters.

The salted method used hashing process and algorithm to encrypt data.

What are the choices for encryption formats?

Some of the most common encryption formats available for encrypting passwords include Salted SHA-1, SHA-1, MD5, crypt, SHA-2, None, and AES.

AES or Advanced Encryption Standard is the most secure encryption type. Government agencies and firms relying on classified communications often use it.

Twofish is a modern encryption method that uses symmetric key block ciphers with a block size of 128 bits and key sizes up to 256 bits. It is one of the fastest encryption algorithms and is an excellent choice for hardware and software users.

Is password protection the same as encryption?

Although both technologies deal with data protection, password protection and password encryption work in many different ways.

1. Encryption

Encryption scrambles your password/electronic data into ciphertext that cannot be easily understood or accessed by anyone except the user with a decipher key.

Encrypting a password relies on using various formats to decrypt the password. Some are converted into scrambled data, random letters and alphabets, or encoded into a bit string.

2. Password protection

Password protection is an essential security protocol designed to protect data stored on a system or database.

It doesn't rely on encryption formats to encrypt data. A thin layer between your data and device is protected with a passcode. Social media accounts rely on password protection to hide user passwords.

Two-way authentication for password protection.

Regarding reliability, password protection doesn't work as effectively as password encryption.

Strong Passwords made from a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols are secure up to some extent, but they can be cracked by malware equipped with key logger components.

Quick Tip: For starters, you should consider using a solid password for each login (Email, social media, cloud storage). Use a different password for each service and never save your passwords in a notepad on the desktop or mobile.

How do I choose Password Encrypt software?

You can find many different password encryption software. Some are free, and others require paying monthly or yearly fees.

The choice of a particular software depends on your need.

One of the popular free password encryptions software is LastPass.

You can use the service for free with limited features. Don't forget to add an extension for web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Be wary about using free encryption software and the encryption format they employ. For better security of your passwords, upgrade to paid LastPass access for just $36 a year.

1Password is paid software that works with a wide range of devices. They charge just $35.88 per year.

Dashlane offers a limited free version (50 passwords on one device) and paid subscription for $59.88 per year.

Keeper also offers a limited free version and a paid version ($35).

KeePassXC is free password encryption software. It works with a wide range of devices.

Along with using a strong password and password encryption software, you should protect your device (PC or mobile) by keeping Operating software and apps updated.

Outdated versions of the software are more likely to be hacked by cybercriminals.

Get in touch with Searchable Design LLC., the best web development agency in the US, to learn more about employing software technologies with robust security for your business.