To encode information, is to change data from one form to another through specific formulae/rules for a specified purpose. Encoding is used every day by way of encryption, compression, data processing, conversion and storage. Notable encoding systems include character encoding, video encoding, HTML encoding and URL encoding.
Encryption
For information to be private and secure, encryption is used. A piece of information can be encrypted by changing each of the characters in the data to something different. The encrypted information can then be decrypted to find out the original information. It is important for information to be encrypted so that only the person that has sent and the person receiving the information can see it. Without
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One of the ways that a message encrypted with a Caesar Cypher can be unencrypted is through a ‘brute force’ attack. This type of attack is where all possible combinations of keys are tried and tried until the message has been unencrypted. Due to the number of possible rotations being limited to only 25 (as there are only 26 letters in the alphabet) and the speed at which modern computers can operate, a message with Caesar Cypher encryption can be unencrypted within seconds. Although, with a larger number of cipher keys the time to unencrypt the message will increase, but even with a larger key set, the alternative encryption solutions (RSA, Triple DES and AES) take far long to solve, years compared to only hours with a substitution cypher. A Caesar Cypher can also vulnerable to frequency analysis attacks, this is when the frequency of each the letters in an encrypted message are recorded and compared with the most commonly used letters in the English language to find the rotation amount and then decrypt the message. Longer messages are easier to decrypt using this attack method as there are more letters that can be analysed and a pattern can be spotted quicker than that of a short message. For modern data encryption methods to be secure, they must be able to prevent brute force and frequency analysis attacks for a large period of time. The time it takes to decrypt a message is how encryption methods can delay
Encryption technique is the translation of data into a secret code that will prevent hackers or identity thieves from being able to break or read the data that is sent across the network.
When a fellow general received the message, he would wrap the paper around his corresponding scytale to decipher the message (Tyson 2014). Since the advent of computers though, encryption has become increasing important and relies almost solely on cryptographic means to secure information. When speaking about encryption today, it refers more to the process rather than the mathematical formulas used to scramble data. The basic idea behind encrypting a computer message is such that it is scrambled with a sequence of random bits, known as a key, and only parties with the corresponding key can transpose it back into a comprehensible format. These keys are created via a cipher, otherwise known as an algorithm. When a user sends a message, known as the plaintext, across a network, the computer applies an algorithm to the information to encode it, resulting in a ciphertext (Encryption Basics 2014). This method can be best summarized visually:
Encryption is the conversion of electronic data into another form, called cipher text, which cannot be easily understood by anyone except authorized parties. The primary purpose of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of digital data stored on computer systems or transmitted via the Internet or other computer networks. Modern encryption algorithms play
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.
Encryption is a process that turns information that is plainly readable into scrambled form in order to preserve the authenticity, integrity, and privacy of the information that passes through the security perimeter (Michael E. Whitman, 2009). It is the conversion of electronic data into another form, called ciphertext, which cannot be easily understood by anyone except authorized parties (Rouse, 2014).
Encryption should be in place to protect and secure information. Encryption allows information to be sent or kept securely. Files at rest may need to be encrypted if they contain secure information. Information such as patient data, or social security numbers would need to be encrypted. Further, emails or transmitted information may need to be encrypted. This will protect the information while in transit. If an attacker gains access to the email, they would not be able to open the file because they would not have to key to unlock the
It was designed to protect individual’s personal information from being passed on to other people, also known as confidentiality.
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.
Encyption takes data and transforms it into unreadable jargon until a key is used to unlock or decrypt the data back to its original form. Due to its near infallibility, encryption is one the most best ways to secure data (Williams & Sawyer, 2015).
Steps are taken to maintain the confidentiality of data through digital signatures by the personnel and through the computer security assurance using the key coding and unlinking of the data.
The best analysis tool to break the Caesar cipher is histogram because it performs a statistical analysis on cipher text which shows the frequency of each letter used in the file. This can later be compared and matched to the frequency of letters in the English language.
This information should be protected by others for potential by some hacker threats,they can read and change the contents of the message and information and exploit this information for personal benefit[17] .
Confidentiality means that data is concealed and can only be seen by the intended recipient.
There are weak encryption and strong encryption. Caesars method is known as weak encryption because it can be deciphered. Deciphering a code without authorization is known as “cracking” a code. In order to crack the simple substitution code, you could make twenty-five different transformation tales where each of them has a different offset. Strong encryption, the opposite of weak encryption, is very tough to crack. By using expensive, specialized, code-breaking computers, strong encryptions methods can be broken. Also, encryption methods can be broken by the use of supercomputers, mainframe computers, workstations and personal computers. The codes can be broken using these computers by using the brute-force method, which consists of trying all of the possible keys (Parsons 329).
Entropy. In order to discuss information theory in relation to computer science, one must first understand the tenants of the theory. The primary keystone of information theory sits in Shannon 's definition of the amount of information a source generates, measured by Shannon 's entropy. Shannon’s entropy also defines the limit of compression of a message from a particular source, as data cannot be compressed beyond its information content without loss. As stated above, the entropy of an information source is H(x) = , or the negative sum across the entire message space of the probability of the ith symbol 's occurrence times the base 2 log of the probability of the ith symbol 's occurrence. Consider an information source that is randomly generating lowercase letters from the English alphabet. Since each symbol has an equal probability of (1/26), H(x) can simplify to , and since 26 and 1/26 cancel, the entropy of the source, or the amount of information it provides per symbol, evaluates to log2 1/26, or ~4.7 bits per symbol. Now imagine our source only transmits letters a-e, with probability increasing across the list, from 1/7 to ⅓. The entropy of the source evaluates to {-(1/7 log sub 2 1/7 + ⅙ log sub 2 ⅙ +