Running head: Cryptography: Is it Secure?
Cryptography: Is it Secure?
Introduction
Cryptography often referred to as encryption, is the process of transforming plain text or clear text into unreadable gibberish usually random symbols, Computer Security Technology and Principles (2008). Only the intended party is provided with the key, a secret value, to decrypt the original text. Any other parties will only see a pattern of mixed symbols without the key. Cryptography has been traced back to the times of Julius Caesar, when he used Excess-3 Code in Boolean algebra to communicate with his military. Early forms of secret writing involved a local pen and paper analogs because very few people were literate. More classical cipher types are transportation ciphers, rearranges the order of the letters, (“hello world” translates to “ehlol owrdl”), and substitution ciphers, “replaces letters or groups of letters with other letters or groups of letters”, (“fly at once” translates to “gmz bu podf”), in the example each letter is replaced by the letter following it in the Latin Alphabet, Cryptography (2010, August 30). Today Cryptography uses symmetric encryption, Message Authentication and Hash Functions, Public Key Encryption, Digital Signatures and Key Management, and Random and Pseudorandom Numbers to secure data. Cryptographic applications exist in today’s ATM cards, Single-Sign-On Access, Satellite companies to determine which customers have access to subscription channels. This paper will argue the point of a good cryptography application only being as secure as the theft trying to break it.
A secure system must be able to stand up to all attacks, but to break the system a attacker only needs to find one vulnerability to successfully complete his mission. "The cryptographer's adage: attacks always get better, they never get worse,"(Bruce Schneier). In order for a cryptosystem to be considered secure all details, sans the key must be published.... [continues]
Cryptography: Is it Secure?
Introduction
Cryptography often referred to as encryption, is the process of transforming plain text or clear text into unreadable gibberish usually random symbols, Computer Security Technology and Principles (2008). Only the intended party is provided with the key, a secret value, to decrypt the original text. Any other parties will only see a pattern of mixed symbols without the key. Cryptography has been traced back to the times of Julius Caesar, when he used Excess-3 Code in Boolean algebra to communicate with his military. Early forms of secret writing involved a local pen and paper analogs because very few people were literate. More classical cipher types are transportation ciphers, rearranges the order of the letters, (“hello world” translates to “ehlol owrdl”), and substitution ciphers, “replaces letters or groups of letters with other letters or groups of letters”, (“fly at once” translates to “gmz bu podf”), in the example each letter is replaced by the letter following it in the Latin Alphabet, Cryptography (2010, August 30). Today Cryptography uses symmetric encryption, Message Authentication and Hash Functions, Public Key Encryption, Digital Signatures and Key Management, and Random and Pseudorandom Numbers to secure data. Cryptographic applications exist in today’s ATM cards, Single-Sign-On Access, Satellite companies to determine which customers have access to subscription channels. This paper will argue the point of a good cryptography application only being as secure as the theft trying to break it.
A secure system must be able to stand up to all attacks, but to break the system a attacker only needs to find one vulnerability to successfully complete his mission. "The cryptographer's adage: attacks always get better, they never get worse,"(Bruce Schneier). In order for a cryptosystem to be considered secure all details, sans the key must be published.... [continues]
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"Cryptography: Is It Secure?." StudyMode.com. 09, 2010. Accessed 09, 2010. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Cryptography-Is-It-Secure-403857.html.
