Asymmetric and Symmetric Encryption
Keys to Locking the Door
By:
Course: 280 Principles Info System Security
Professor:
ABC Institute of Research has collaborated with the XYZ Inc. to research genetics. They have highly sensitive information that needs to be protected from their rivals and must be protected. ABC Institute knows how sensitive this information is and have raised several concerns about the security between the two companies. There has been an ongoing debate over which type of security measure should be used to protect the data, asymmetric or symmetric. There are two questions that we need to ask ourselves: is one is better than the other and which one will protect our information to the fullest possible length? Or is there a way to use both types of encryption that would maximize our protection efforts? It’s time to explore our options for keeping our information under lock and key.
To truly be able to decide which encryption type would work best we must first understand how they work and the components that define each. Both asymmetric and symmetric encryption use a key “that is applied to the text of a message to change the content in a particular way” ("Description of symmetric," 2007). Keys can be anything from a random set of letters or numbers to words or a mixture. This is where we, as humans, create our own fault because we often use common patterns for passwords/keys. This allows hackers to create a dictionary of commonly used passwords and preform a dictionary attack on the network.
Symmetric encryption is the process of using a key to turn plain text into ciphertext. Once you have encrypted the text you can send it to the desired receiver. The receiver will have to have the key used to encrypt the text to decrypt the text. For this to happen you must share the key used to encrypt the text with the person/people that will receive the message. A “symmetric key can be changed every time” (Czagan, 2013) someone wants to communicate. Although
By:
Course: 280 Principles Info System Security
Professor:
ABC Institute of Research has collaborated with the XYZ Inc. to research genetics. They have highly sensitive information that needs to be protected from their rivals and must be protected. ABC Institute knows how sensitive this information is and have raised several concerns about the security between the two companies. There has been an ongoing debate over which type of security measure should be used to protect the data, asymmetric or symmetric. There are two questions that we need to ask ourselves: is one is better than the other and which one will protect our information to the fullest possible length? Or is there a way to use both types of encryption that would maximize our protection efforts? It’s time to explore our options for keeping our information under lock and key.
To truly be able to decide which encryption type would work best we must first understand how they work and the components that define each. Both asymmetric and symmetric encryption use a key “that is applied to the text of a message to change the content in a particular way” ("Description of symmetric," 2007). Keys can be anything from a random set of letters or numbers to words or a mixture. This is where we, as humans, create our own fault because we often use common patterns for passwords/keys. This allows hackers to create a dictionary of commonly used passwords and preform a dictionary attack on the network.
Symmetric encryption is the process of using a key to turn plain text into ciphertext. Once you have encrypted the text you can send it to the desired receiver. The receiver will have to have the key used to encrypt the text to decrypt the text. For this to happen you must share the key used to encrypt the text with the person/people that will receive the message. A “symmetric key can be changed every time” (Czagan, 2013) someone wants to communicate. Although
References: Czagan, D. (2013, 10 23). Symmetric and asymmetric encryption. Retrieved from http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/symmetric-asymmetric-encryption/ Description of symmetric and asymmetric encryption. (2007, 10 26). Retrieved from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246071 Miessler, D. (n.d.). The difference between encoding, encryption, and hashing. Retrieved from http://www.danielmiessler.com/study/encoding_encryption_hashing/