What happens if I lose my encryption key?

Question

The answer is unfortunately very likely to be “nothing”. It's real encryption; and people who don't have the key can't get the data; it's meant to be mathematically impossible with current knowledge.

Can lost encryption keys be retrieved?

When data is stored in encrypted form, you must have the private key that corresponds to the public key that was used to encrypt the data in order to decrypt and read it. If the private key is lost, the data cannot be retrieved.

What happens when you lose an encryption key?

If you lose the decryption key, you cannot decrypt the associated ciphertext. The data that is contained in the ciphertext is considered cryptographically erased. If the only copies of data are cryptographically erased ciphertext, access to that data is permanently lost.

How do I find my encryption key?

Check your device manual for supported encryption protocols. The default encryption key may be located on the bottom of your router or in the manual, depending on the router manufacturer. You can locate the encryption key when you log into the router setup page, if you have created your own encryption key.

Is an encryption key the same as a password?

An encryption key is not the same as a password. The main difference between the two is that a password is created, read, and remembered by a human user, while a key is used by the software that implements the algorithm, meaning it does not have to be readable by a human.

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