The Battle of the Best: Hashing vs Encryption

Hashing vs encryption has been a long-standing debate in the technology world. Both security measures have their pros and cons, uses, and capabilities, driving a long wall of separation between the two. Consider them as one-way and two-way roads. On a one-way street, you can only move in one direction, unlike a two-way road, where you can move in opposite directions but on your own side. Taking the car in the opposite direction on a one-way road can lead to accidents. Similarly, the significant difference between encryption and hashing is the direction. In encryption, we can encrypt the message and decrypt it, but in hashing, the message, once encrypted, cannot be decrypted. With this understanding, let’s move on with a detailed comparison to find out what is the difference between encryption and hashing. What is the Difference between Encryption and Hashing? Let’s get into the details of hashing vs encryption and understand their utility and benefits when compared against each other. Purpose of Using Hashing and Encryption As we have understood from the definition, encryption is mainly used to convert plain text into cipher text. This is done to keep the information shared via a digital medium secure and confidential. With encryption, no unauthorized person, someone who doesn’t have the decryption key, cannot access the data. Even the ones who have access to the decryption key and can access the encrypted data have limited functionality regarding how they can interact with the data. So, encryption is used popularly to share files, images, text, videos, and other sorts of information over the web. Hashing is implemented with a different purpose. It is used to compare the same set of data as and when required to ensure that it has not been tampered with. When we have large volumes of data, comparing the hash functions is easier than comparing every bit of data. Along with storing and securing passwords, hashing functions are also used for digital signatures. Then we have the geometric hashing system used in identifying and matching similar graphics on a computer or matching recognizable objects even if they have undergone some modifications. In a nutshell, we can say that the purpose of encryption is to secure data confidentiality. But the purpose of hashing is to secure data integrity. Direction | One-Way, and Two-Way Hashing has no reverse process. This means that once a text has been hashed, we cannot unhash it to find the original message. However, in hashing, there is no need to unhash or reverse the process because the system is used for different purposes. We cannot reverse the hash function but can only use it to map out the information secured. The hashed information is secure if the hash code checks out to be authentic. Encryption, on the other hand, is a two-way street. Once the encryption is applied to obscure information, it can be reversed to decrypt the same information. Algorithms Used in Hashing vs Encryption Another segment of difference between encryption and hashing stems from the usage of algorithms. Listed below are a few algorithms for your reference; Encryption Algorithms or Systems Symmetric Encryption: One of the techniques used in encryption is symmetric. It implies that one single key is used for encrypting and decrypting the information. So if one person used a string of characters to encrypt data, another person would use the same string of characters to decrypt. Hence, the secret key has to be present with both the client and server. Asymmetric Encryption: Asymmetric encryption uses two different keys; one is a public key accessible to the website/server and the user. Another is the private key used by the administrator. In this, the public key is used for encryption, and the private key is used for decryption. Hashing Algorithms MD5: Message Digest 5 algorithm provides a 128-bit output. It is a successor to the MD4 algorithm and brings several improvements. However, even with the advancements, the MD5 algorithm has vulnerability and collision issues. SHA256: The Secure Hashing Algorithm is introduced by the National Security Agency. Used popularly by several organizations, this hashing algorithm also brings quick updates making it more secure with time. SHA provides 256-bits of protection, which is considered the most secure form of hashing-based security. Tiger: Tiger is an upgraded version of the MD5 algorithm as it provides 192-bit output. Modern-day computers and software use the Tiger algorithm. Today we also have the Tiger2 algorithm, which is an advanced form of encrypting solution. Which is more Secure? Hashing or Encryption? There is no easy way to answer this question as both types of security standards have their distinct uses and purposes. However, for the sake of our discussion, we can compare them in terms of their security strength. Let’s compare the time required to break the encryption and hashing protection. Hashing Standard Time Encryption Standard Time SHA 256 5.4 million years RSA 2058 - Type of Asymmetric Encryption 300 trillion years MD5 12 minutes 22 seconds AES 128 and 256 - Type of Symmetric Encryption More than one billion years From the above table, we can be sure of one thing, that encryption is harder to break than hashing. We are talking about billions and trillion years of continuous work required to crack the code. But to make hashing more challenging and difficult to crack, we can use salting. It's an additional precaution of sorts that adds a random string of characters to the hash value. With salting, the hashed value becomes even more obscure. So, we will need higher computational power to crack the code with salting. It primarily protects the passwords from the hash table attack and reverse engineering the hashed value to find the password. Length of the Output In hashing and encryption, we will get an output based. This output is either the encrypted text or the hashed value. However, in one type of security system, the output is fixed; in another, the output depends on the input. Let’s find out how. In hashing, no matter the length of the input, the output has limited characters. In other words, we can create a hash value of an entire 200-page book or hash a ten-character string of passwords; the hash value for both can be more or less the same. This is because the hash value generated does not convert plain text into another form. It only creates a hash value of the current information. Changes in the hashed text can lead to a change in the value. But in encryption, the output depends on the ciphered text. The longer text means longer lengths of the cipher text. Conclusion Hashing and encryption might be two different systems of enhancing security, but they are insanely important in today’s world. A world where anything we do on the web is susceptible to being cracked or accessed by a third party. Hence, it is important to set in either or both of these systems to secure data. We can use both techniques in the same environment and not risk any sort of overlapping as they have different purposes and areas of control. This sums up our discussion on hashing vs encryption and how they are effective in providing a security net to our transactions and data online.