Public Key Cryptography

Public key and private is a type of encryption technique that can be used ensuring that the communication on the network is secured. When you sending a message to someone through the network, will need to use the public key of the receiver and the receiver will use the private key to decrypt the message. This encryption will avoid unauthorised access to the message such as reading

Generally speaking, modern encryption techniques fall into one of two categories - symmetric (homogeneous) and asymmetric (heterogeneous). Symmetric encryption is a system of communication whereby both parties share the same key to encode and decode a message. The Spartan generals used this method with their scytales.

Security within keys and certificates depend on possession of at least two of three things, what you own, what you know, and what you are. It is relatively easy to steal anything with only one of these, for example, a vehicle only requires a key to open, which leaves it vulnerable as it is easy to steal a key, or pick the lock. If you combine two elements you drastically increase the difficulty of the problem, so if a car had a key and a hand print scanner this would pose a harder challenge to steal the car. The PKI enables an encrypted message to be sent it to anyone who is a member of their infrastructure. Everyone who is a member is in possession of two keys, a public and a private; the public is made available to all members of the network. And the private is kept private. The two keys are connected to each other, a message encrypted with the public will only decrypt with the private. So, if something/someone needs to send a message to something/someone else it takes the Public

Moreover, encryption requires use of a key or cipher, which is used to lock and unlock the hidden data. Such a key is necessary to allow the hidden data to be viewed in an intelligible manner by those who are authorized to view it. However, there is always a risk that the encryption key might fall into the wrong hands, thereby allowing the information to be accessed by unauthorized viewers.

Data, often referred to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm and an encryption key. This process generates ciphertext that can only be viewed in its original form if decrypted with the correct key. Decryption is simply the inverse of encryption, following the same steps but reversing the order in which the keys are applied (Rouse, 2014).

The key can be changes and unique to each sender and receiver. ("Symmetric encryption,”) states, “There are two types of symmetric algorithms. Stream algorithms (Stream ciphers) and Block algorithms (Block ciphers).” Stream ciphers only encrypt one bit at a time. This can make this cipher faster than block ciphers, but stream ciphers have a security gap that can be harmful for specific types of attacks. These specific attacks can cause information to be compromised. Block ciphers encrypts information in blocks instead of doing it bit by bit. The size of the blocks is usually 64 bits. Triple DES and AES are the most popular symmetric algorithms that use block ciphers.

PKI is abbreviated as the Public-Key infrastructures, which is a system of cryptographic mechanisms, wherein we will have to use mainly two kinds of keys, they are:

Encryption is a method of encoding a message or information before sending it, so unauthorized users can’t access it without permission and only the person who has authorised access to it can decode it. Encryption is used to keep things secure and keep things confidential within the organisation. For example let’s say you have a chat with a friend on Skype, when you’re sending a message to him, that message will display as random symbols until he receives it, which then decodes it and makes it so that only he can read it. This allows the communication to be secure and private, no one will be able to know what the message says.

The X.509 formatted public key certificate is one of the most important components of PKI. This certificate is a data file that binds the identity of an entity to a public key. The data file contains a collection of data elements that together allow for unique authentication of the own ingenuity when used in combination with the associated private key.

In today’s IT world every organization has a responsibility to protect the information and sensitive data they have. Protecting data is not only responsibility of security and IT staff but every individual is involved in protecting the information. The risks to information security are not digital only, but it involves technology, people and process that an organization may have. These threats may represent the problems that are associated to complex and expensive solution, but doing nothing about these risks is not the solution.

An encryption algorithm takes the original message and encodes it using the encryption key and creates an encrypted message. The only way to retrieve the original message is by decrypting the message using the encryption key. If the encryption key uses a 128-bit key is the same as saying that there are 128² possible key combinations. Algorithms are classified

Prevalent to the current trend now is the dependency of the society on Information technology and communication systems. Every aspect of human life is one way or the other linked and controlled by information technology tools. The importance of information technology cannot be over emphasized as its unavailability could lead to a form of disaster or the other. Pivotal infrastructures like finance, healthcare, education and security are driven by information technology. However, information technology and its benefits are accompanied by vulnerabilities and risks that can be exploited by people with the necessary technical skills. Individuals like ‘Hackers’ and ‘Cyber Terrorist’ can cause disruption to information systems, commit financial fraud and also attack computers and networks. These attacks and disruptions could result to violence against people and properties. In some cases, death, serious injuries and severe economic loss could occur as a result of these attacks.

Encryption is a method of programming data for security so that it appears to be random data. Only the people sending and receiving the information have the key to decrypt the message, which will put it back into its original form making it readable. The only people with the key are the people who are intended to read the message. Not many people know what encryption is. I took a survey of twenty students and asked two questions. The first question I asked was do you know what encryption means and the second question I asked was have you ever heard of anybody using encryption. This is a chart of the information I received:

Safety of information is the most valuable asset in any organization particular those who provide financial service to others. Threats can come from a variety of sources such as human threats, natural disasters and technical threats. By identifying the potential threats to the network, security measure can be taken to combat these threats, eliminate them or reduce the likelihood and impact if they should occur.

Asymmetric key system (or asymmetric algorithm; public key): A cryptographic system that uses two separate keys: one key to encrypt and a different key to decrypt information. These keys are known as public and private