Method and apparatus for encrypting data to facilitate resource savings and detection of tampering

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates encrypting data. During operation, the system receives unencrypted data to be encrypted. Next, the system preprocesses the unencrypted data to create preprocessed unencrypted data, wherein preprocessing the unencrypted data involves generating a salt (wherein the salt facilitates in determining if the subsequently encrypted data has been altered) and concatenating the salt and the unencrypted data to create the preprocessed unencrypted data. Next, the system encrypts the preprocessed unencrypted data to create the encrypted data. Because the salt has already been applied to the plaintext data, it does not need to be reapplied during the encryption phase as is typically done in encryption. Finally, the system stores a copy of the salt with the encrypted data.