Cryptography?

Cryptography

Cryptography is the art/ study of protecting information, data, files, messages etc.. from unauthorized access or modification to ensure its confidentiality and security. Cryptography plays a critical role in various applications, including secure communication over the internet (such as encrypted messaging and secure browsing), secure storage of sensitive information, secure financial transactions, and many other scenarios where data security and privacy are paramount.

Cryptography techniques:

a. Symmetric cryptography

Symmetric encryption uses the same key for both encrypting and decrypting a data. The two parties communicating need to share knowledge of the same key. This type of algorithm protects data, as a person who does not have the correct key would not be able to read the encrypted message. This type of cryptography can be used on a daily basis to send or receive data in a fast manner.

Examples of encryption standards using symmetric cryptography to encrypt and decrypt data are Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple Data Encryption Standard (Triple DES), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) etc.

b. Asymmetric cryptography

Asymmetric encryption uses one key to encrypt the data (private key) and a different key to decrypt the data (public key). However, asymmetric cryptography is extremely slow compared with its symmetric counterpart. Asymmetric cryptography is impractical for everyday use in encrypting large amounts of data or for frequent transactions where speed is required. This is because asymmetric key cryptography is handling much larger keys and is mathematically intensive, thereby reducing the speed significantly.

Examples of encryption standards using asymmetric cryptography to encrypt and decrypt data are Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) etc.

c. Hash function

A hash is a unique value assigned to a data to act like a fingerprint of that particular data. Hashes should be unique to a particular data and ensures the integrity of the data. Hashing is an extra layer of protection.

Usually, cryptography is executed by encrypting and decrypting data/ information. Encryption is the process of converting plaintext readable data or information into ciphertext (aka non readable form) using an encryption key and an encryption algorithm before sending it to the intended recipient. The recipient will and can only read the data by decrypting the data with the help of a decryption key that only the sender and receiver knows and the data will be decrypted using decryption algorithm to finally output the data as plaintext.

Cipher text

It is the altered form of plaintext converting it into an unreadable format making it a secret which can only be read with the help of a decryption key.