Keeping your details safe with encryption

As part of ensuring your payments and details are kept secure, websites use encryption. But what is encryption and how does it work?

When you enter your details on an unsecure site without encryption, it’s as if you are sending a letter in a transparent envelope. Anyone accessing it can see inside and use your details as they wish. So, to make sure your personal information doesn’t become available to one and all, it is encrypted. That means it is written in a special code and only the person receiving the information is given the cipher to decode it. It’s the way secret messages have been sent through the centuries but now encryption is all done electronically within seconds.

There are different levels of encryption, but the most secure sites have 128-bit encryption – the highest commercially available. At the current speeds computers work at, it would take a hacker a trillion years to break into a session encrypted in this way. And that’s only if they have the time and the tools to do so!

Not only is the information encrypted but it’s also sent through a private and secure channel, making it even harder to access. All of this is indicated by a SSL Certificate, which comes up as a green bar or a padlock in your browser bar. Look out for it next time and you’ll know your online purchases and details are safe.