Initial idea 2: Industrial Cryptography

 

 Cryptography:

The study of secure communications systems that enable only the sender and intended recipient of a message to read its contents is known as cryptography. The word comes from the Greek, word kryptos, which means "hidden." It is closely related to encryption, which is the act of scrambling plain text into ciphertext and then back again when it arrives. Furthermore, cryptography includes the obscuring of information in pictures through the use of methods such as microdots or merging. The ancient Egyptians were known to apply similar tactics in complicated hieroglyphics, while Roman Emperor Julius Caesar is credited with inventing one of the earliest modern cyphers(Kaspersky, 2022).

(Enisa, 2016)

Techniques of cryptography

Cryptography is inextricably linked to the fields of cryptology and cryptanalysis. It covers techniques such as microdots, combining words and pictures, and other methods for concealing data in storage or transport. However, in today's computer-centric world, cryptography is most commonly linked with scrambling plaintext (regular text, also known as cleartext) into ciphertext (a process known as encryption), then back again (known as decryption). Cryptographers are professionals who work in this sector.(SearchSecurity, 2021).

Modern cryptography concerns itself with the following four objectives:

1. Confidentiality: The knowledge is incomprehensible to anyone who was not supposed to receive it.
2. Integrity: The information cannot be changed while in storage or transit between the sender and the intended receiver without being discovered.
3. Non-repudiation: The information's creator/sender cannot later deny their intentions in creating or transmitting the information.
4. Authentication: The transmitter and receiver can verify each other's identities as well as the origin/destination of the information.

Cryptosystems are procedures and protocols that fulfil some or all of the aforementioned characteristics. Cryptosystems are sometimes assumed to apply to mathematical methods and computer programmes exclusively; nevertheless, they also involve regulating human behaviour, such as selecting difficult-to-guess passwords, turning off unneeded systems, and not discussing sensitive operations with outsiders(SearchSecurity, 2021).

Types of cryptography

Single-key or symmetric-key encryption algorithms create a fixed length of bits known as a block cypher with a secret key that the creator/sender uses to encipher data (encryption) and the receiver uses to decipher it. The Advanced Encryption Standard is an example of symmetric-key encryption (AES). The US government mandated the standard and extensively utilised it in the commercial sector. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created AES as a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 197) in November 2001 to secure sensitive information.

The United States government certified AES for confidential material in June 2003. It is a royalty-free specification used in software and hardware across the world. AES is the successor of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and DES3. It employs more extraordinary key lengths – 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit – to resist brute force and other attacks(SearchSecurity, 2021).

(Searchsecurity, 2021)

References:

Bernstein, C. and Cobb, M., 2021. [image] Available at: <https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/Data-Encryption-Standard> [Accessed 3 May 2022].

Enisa, 2016. [image] Available at: <https://www.enisa.europa.eu/news/enisa-news/the-importance-of-cryptography-for-the-digital-society> [Accessed 3 May 2022].

kaspersky, 2022. Cryptography Definition. [online] www.kaspersky.com. Available at: <https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-cryptography> [Accessed 3 May 2022].

Richards, K., 2021. What is Cryptography? Definition from SearchSecurity. [online] SearchSecurity. Available at: <https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/cryptography> [Accessed 3 May 2022].