How Encryption Works: Turning Secrets Into Mathematical Chaos.

There are three kinds of people in the world:

1. Those who think encryption is some magic done by Hackers (as seen in movies).

2. And those who pretend they understand AES so they can look smart on LinkedIn.

3. And then those who know the truth (Like Solakunmi. We will talk about her in another article).

But here’s the truth:

Encryption is simply the internet’s way of whispering.

It’s how your bank app protects your money, how WhatsApp hides your 2 a.m. “Are you awake?” messages, and how developers avoid going to jail. Without encryption, the internet would be one big gossip market, everyone hearing everything, no privacy, no peace.

So today, we’re diving into how encryption actually works, without frying your brain.

Think of it as math, but with vibes.

1. The Core Idea: Scramble It Until It Looks Like Madness

Encryption takes readable information:

Johnny is a tech poet.

And scrambles it into:

7h1$#dGDjf8283jdn---39844<<>>??

Mathematical soup.

Delicious chaos.

Only someone with the right key can turn it back into the original message.

Everyone else sees premium nonsense.

2. AES: The “Lock Your Door and Put Padlocks on the Padlocks” Method

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is what protects:

• bank transfers

• credit card details

• that embarrassing search history🌚

AES is symmetric encryption, meaning:

• one key locks

• the same key unlocks

Like giving someone the key to your house, you’re now trusting them with your fridge, your TV, and your garri stash.

Why it works:

AES takes your message and shreds it through layers of mathematical transformations, substitutions, permutations, mixing, until the final ciphertext looks like your handwriting when you’re stressed.

Even supercomputers struggle to break AES.

It’s the Shango(god of thunder) of encryption.

3. RSA: “Here’s My Public Key — Do With It What You Will.”

RSA is different.

It uses asymmetric encryption, which has two keys:

• Public Key — You can share it with everybody. Post it on your WhatsApp status. Put it on a billboard.

• Private Key — You guard it with your life, your PIN, and probably your destiny.

If AES is “one key for everything,”

RSA is “one key to lock, another key to open.”

This is what makes secure communication between strangers possible.

Imagine writing a letter, locking it in a box using someone’s public key,

and only their private key can open the box.

Even you can’t open it again.

You just have to hope they read it.

RSA is used for:

• HTTPS,

• Certificates,

• Signing software,

• Securely sharing AES keys.

It’s slow, but it’s trustworthy, like a wise village elder who speaks only once but deeply.

4. Hashing: One-Way Digestion (Like Code That Breaks Your Spirit)

Hashing is not encryption.

Hashing is irreversible.

It’s the internet equivalent of:

“I can digest it, but I cannot undigest it.”

You pass a message through a hashing function and get a fixed-length result called a hash.

Example (barely real):

Password123 → 9f86d081884c7d659a2feaa0c55ad015

You cannot get the password back from the hash.

The function eats the input and burps out a fingerprint.

This is how passwords are stored — or should be, unless the platform is shady.

Hashes change drastically with even tiny modifications:

Password123 → 9f86...

password123 → 12ab...

Capital letter changed?

Hash becomes a new character entirely, dramatic, but useful.

5. Salts: Because Hackers Are Too Clever

Without salts, two people with the same password will have the same hash.

Terrible idea.

A salt is a random string added before hashing:

Password123 + randomSalt → h8273h3bdj92jA

Even if someone else uses “Password123,” their salt is different, so their hash is different.

Think of salts as:

• disguises,

• wigs,

• sunglasses.

the internet’s version of “mind your business”

Hackers absolutely hate salts.

Which is why we absolutely love them.

6. Encryption in the Wild: How It All Works Together

Let’s say you’re sending a message to your bank:

1. RSA is used to securely share a temporary key.

2. AES uses that temporary key to encrypt the data fast.

3. Hashing ensures your password isn’t stored in plain text.

4. Salt protects against pattern attacks.

5. Everything travels through HTTPS, which is basically encryption wrapped in encryption, topped with certificates.

It’s like your secrets are carried across the internet by a heavily-armed convoy wearing invisibility cloaks.

7. Why It Feels Like Magic

It is math, deep math, but the experience feels spiritual:

• You type something simple.

• It becomes pure gibberish.

• It travels across the world.

• Only the intended reader can decode it.

• Hackers cry.

• I'm happy.

Beautiful!

Encryption is the quiet guardian of the modern world, invisible, powerful, and always working behind the scenes so your data doesn’t end up on Twitter.

Final Wisdom

Take a seat, my child.

You see, encryption turns secrets into structured chaos.

But within that chaos is protection, privacy, and peace.

So next time your app says:

Secured via encryption.

Just know that behind the scenes,

a storm of math is raging,

keys are dancing,

hashes are burping,

and your secrets are being kept safe, like whispered prayers sealed inside a locked vault. Please subscribe for more helpful gist and articles. Mabinu!