In the data security field, encryption and hashing are commonly compared, but why is this the case. Encryption is a two-way function where data is passed in as plaintext and comes out as ciphertext, which is unreadable. Since encryption is two-way, the data can be decrypted so it is readable again. Hashing, on the other hand, is one-way, meaning the plaintext is scrambled into a unique digest, through the use of a salt, that cannot be decrypted. Technically, hashing can be reversed, but the computational power needed to decrypt it makes decryption infeasible. The way hashing works is with a hashing algorithm. This algorithm is most effective when it collision resistant. Collision resistance means that all the digests are unique and do not overlap with each other. This means that the hashing algorithm must be complex enough to not have overlapping hashes, but not so complex as to take too long to compute hashes. Encryption comes in two different types, and both encryption and hashing have several common types of algorithms.