Today data encryption is on everyone’s lips, especially given the frequent security breaches that put user data in a vulnerable state. For this reason, many storage device manufacturers boast that their devices support hardware encryption , but as you have long known, there are also software encryption methods. If we have to choose between one, is it better encryption by hardware or by software ? Let’s see it.
Before starting to talk about which of the two types of encryption is the best (and we will do it both in terms of security and in terms of the performance impact that one and the other has on a PC), it is essential to first define what the two techniques, so let’s start with the basics.
What is hardware encryption?
Storage units that support hardware encryption come with a small chip on their PCB, a processor that handles data encryption with a private or public key (depending on the encryption system used). This dedicated processor houses the mathematical functions necessary to run the data encryption and decryption algorithm.
This exclusive processor is accompanied by a small dedicated memory to store the secure key, and is isolated from the rest of the device’s functions to guarantee the best security and the least performance impact on the device (this means that it can only and exclusively access her the dedicated processor).
By design, both the dedicated processor and memory are completely isolated from the rest of the system in order to reduce the chances of a potential brute force attack, while improving overall speed in encryption and decryption functions.
What is software encryption?
Software encryption is an approach to secure confidential data by using software tools to encrypt the data. The only way to encrypt or decrypt this data is with a password , so it depends exclusively on whether the user remembers it or writes it down somewhere, making the vulnerability much higher.
Regarding hardware encryption, software encryption does not have a dedicated processor to execute the necessary algorithms, nor does it have dedicated memory to host the secure key; Likewise, it does not have a system isolated from everything else, so it is much more vulnerable to external attacks, and it consumes general system resources to be able to perform encryption and decryption operations.
Which method is the safest? And the fastest?
If you have read the previous two sections, you will already have a fairly clear answer to both questions: hardware encryption is better, and by far. Not only is it much faster , but having a dedicated processor and memory does not affect the overall performance of the system and, in fact, it is much safer because this runs on a circuit isolated from other components, for making it much less vulnerable to attack.
In comparative terms, the speed at which a hardware encryption engine is capable of performing its operations is between 10 and 100 times faster than a software engine. This means that what a software engine takes 100 ms to complete, a hardware engine could take only 4 ms.
Software encryption methods share the processor and memory with the rest of the system, sharing resources with unsafe operations and opening vulnerabilities that can be exploited. This model of shared resources increases the attack surface and allows a malicious attacker to take advantage of software errors to access that data encryption. This, as we have already explained, does not happen with hardware encryption when running on a circuit isolated from the rest.