Why this matters
Banks, hospitals, telcos and NGOs in Ghana hold personal data about many people. Laws and regulators expect it to be protected, and adverts for security roles mention data protection controls and encryption. You need to know what encryption does, what it does not do and how to handle personal data responsibly.
Encryption in plain words
Encryption scrambles data so only someone with the right key can read it.
- Symmetric encryption uses one shared key to lock and unlock. It is fast and used for files and disks.
- Asymmetric encryption uses a key pair: a public key anyone can use to lock, and a private key only the owner holds to unlock. It helps strangers set up secure connections.
You already use both every day. The padlock in your browser means HTTPS, which uses these methods to protect data travelling between your device and a website. WhatsApp uses end to end encryption for messages. Phone and laptop disk encryption protects stored data if the device is lost.
Encryption protects confidentiality. It does not stop someone who already has the password, and it does not help if the key is written on a sticky note.
Hashing is different
A hash turns any data into a fixed length fingerprint. The same input always gives the same hash, but you cannot turn the hash back into the data. Changing one letter changes the hash completely. This makes hashes useful for: