Encryption vs. Hashing: What’s the Difference?
The main difference between encryption and hashing is that encryption is used to protect sensitive data while it is transmitted or stored whereas hashing is used to protect passwords or verify the integrity of data.
Before we move to more differences, let’s first understand Encryption and Hashing:
- Encryption: Encryption is a process of encoding data in a way that makes it unreadable without the decryption key.
- Hashing: Hashing is a technique for generating a unique code representing the data, allowing quick data comparison without revealing the information.
Now, let’s get to Encryption vs Hashing:
Major differences between Encryption and Hashing
| Encryption | Hashing |
|---|---|
| Encryption transforms sensitive information into a coded format that can read by authorized users. | Hashing produces an irreversible one-way transformation of the data. |
| Encryption is mainly used for confidentiality purposes to secure communication or information. | Hashing is used to detect alterations in data. |
| Encryption can be decrypted with a specific key. | Hashing is not reversible, and a hash code cannot be transformed into the original data without additional data input. |
| Encryption requires additional security considerations and key distribution. | Hashing does not typically require encryption of the hash code unless the data is sensitive. |
| Encryption can be symmetric or asymmetric. | Hashing is always one-way. |
So, these are the main differences between the entities.
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