Cryptography Techniques

In this, Plain text numbers or characters are combined with pseudorandom cipher digit stream. Some important Stream cipher algorithms are RC4, A5, BLOWFISH, etc. In symmetric key encryption, The encryption code can be cracked if someone finds out the symmetric key. But this problem can be overcome with the Diffie-Hellman algorithm. In the Diffie-Hellman key exchange or agreement algorithm, the sender and receiver must agree on a symmetric key using this technique. This key can then be used for encryption or decryption purpose.

What is Cryptography in security? What are the different types of Cryptography?

Cryptography is the study of securing communications from outside observers. Encryption algorithms take the original message, or plaintext, and converts it into ciphertext, which is not understandable. The key allows the user to decrypt the message, thus ensuring on they can read the message. The strength of the randomness of an encryption is also studied, which makes it harder for anyone to guess the key or input of the algorithm. Cryptography is how we can achieve more secure and robust connections to elevate our privacy. Advancements in cryptography makes it harder to break encryptions so that encrypted files, folders, or network connections are only accessible to authorized users.

Cryptography focuses on four different objectives:

Confidentiality Confidentiality ensures that only the intended recipient can decrypt the message and read its contents.
Non-repudiation Non-repudiation means the sender of the message cannot backtrack in the future and deny their reasons for sending or creating the message.
Integrity Integrity focuses on the ability to be certain that the information contained within the message cannot be modified while in storage or transit.
Authenticity Authenticity ensures the sender and recipient can verify each other’s identities and the destination of the message.

These objectives help ensure a secure and authentic transfer of information.

History of Cryptography

Cryptography began with ciphers, the first of which was the Caesar Cipher. Ciphers were a lot easier to unravel compared to modern cryptographic algorithms, but they both used keys and plaintext. Though simple, ciphers from the past were the earliest forms of encryption. Today’s algorithms and cryptosystems are much more advanced. They use multiple rounds of ciphers and encrypting the ciphertext of messages to ensure the most secure transit and storage of data. There are also methods of cryptography used now that are irreversible, maintaining the security of the message forever.

The reason for more advanced cryptography methods is due to the need for data to be protected more and more securely. Most of the ciphers and algorithms used in the early days of cryptography have been deciphered, making them useless for data protection. Today’s algorithms can be deciphered, but it would require years and sometimes decades to decipher the meaning of just one message. Thus, the race to create newer and more advanced cryptography techniques continues.

Types of Cryptography

Cryptography can be broken down into three different types:

Secret Key Cryptography
Public Key Cryptography
Hash Functions

Secret Key Cryptography, or symmetric cryptography, uses a single key to encrypt data. Both encryption and decryption in symmetric cryptography use the same key, making this the easiest form of cryptography. The cryptographic algorithm utilizes the key in a cipher to encrypt the data, and when the data must be accessed again, a person entrusted with the secret key can decrypt the data. Secret Key Cryptography can be used on both in-transit and at-rest data, but is commonly only used on at-rest data, as sending the secret to the recipient of the message can lead to compromise.

Public Key Cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, uses two keys to encrypt data. One is used for encryption, while the other key can decrypts the message. Unlike symmetric cryptography, if one key is used to encrypt, that same key cannot decrypt the message, rather the other key shall be used.

One key is kept private, and is called the “private key”, while the other is shared publicly and can be used by anyone, hence it is known as the “public key”. The mathematical relation of the keys is such that the private key cannot be derived from the public key, but the public key can be derived from the private. The private key should not be distributed and should remain with the owner only. The public key can be given to any other entity.

Hash functions are irreversible, one-way functions which protect the data, at the cost of not being able to recover the original message. Hashing is a way to transform a given string into a fixed length string. A good hashing algorithm will produce unique outputs for each input given. The only way to crack a hash is by trying every input possible, until you get the exact same hash. A hash can be used for hashing data (such as passwords) and in certificates.

Some of the most famous hashing algorithms are:

MD5
SHA-1
SHA-2 family which includes SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512
SHA-3
Whirlpool
Blake 2
Blake 3

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Cryptography Techniques

Various cryptography techniques have been developed to provide data security to ensure that the data transferred between communication parties is confidential, not modified by an unauthorized party, to prevent hackers from accessing and using their information. Caesar cipher, monoalphabetic cipher, homophonic substitution cipher, Polyalphabetic Cipher, Playfair cipher, rail fence, One-time pad, hill cipher are some of the examples of cryptography techniques.

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Cryptography deals with various security principles, which are as follows:

Confidentiality – It specifies that only the sender and the recipient or recipients should be able to access the message. Confidentiality will get lost if an authorized person can access a message.
Authentication – It identifies a user or a computer system so that it can be trusted.
Integrity – It checks that a message’s contents must not be altered during its transmission from the sender to the recipient.
Non-repudiation – It specifies that the sender of a message cannot be refused having sent it, later on, in the case of a dispute.

Top 5 Cryptography Techniques

Here are some very easy codes and more complex modern encryption technologies used on the Internet today.

1) Simple Codes

This category is any way of writing a message by side that it is difficult for anyone else to read. That involves writing stuff in another alphabet. Here we can see that Icelandic runes and IPA and another niche built alphabets such as the Deseret Alphabet.

In this, we can use language to code. We have looked into the creation of created languages such as Elvish and Esperanto.
Chester Naz and Judith Schiess Avila’s book Code Talker is a book that explains how the Navajo language had been used as a code in the Second World War and never was cracked into extremely intense conditions.
If Navajo had no words for a particular notion, the code speakers chose a term instead. The Navajo word for ‘ hummingbird, ‘ for example, had become a fighter plane, and ‘ iron hat ‘ was Germany.

2) Symmetric Encryption

Symmetrical encryption is a type of encryption that is used for the encryption and decryption of electronic data by just one key (a secret key). Substitution ciphers are symmetrical encryption techniques, but modern symmetric encryption can be much more complicated.
Data are converted to a method that anyone cannot understand without a secret key to decrypt it using symmetrical encryption algorithms.
Symmetric encryption is an old algorithm, but it is faster and efficient than asymmetric encryption. Because of great performance and fast speed of symmetric as compare to asymmetric encryption.
Whereas Symmetric key cryptography involves the usage of the same key for encryption and decryption. At the same time, Asymmetric key cryptography involves using one key for encryption and another different key for decryption.
Symmetric encryption is typical for big quantities of information, e.g. for database encryption, in bulk encryption. In the case of a database, the secret key can only be encrypted or decrypted by the database itself.

We can see the working of Symmetric encryption in the picture given below:

Two kinds of symmetrical encryption algorithms are available:

Block algorithm
Stream algorithm

A) Block Algorithm

The set of bits is encoded with a specific secret key in electronic data blocks. The system keeps the data in its memory while it is waiting to get complete blocks when the data are encrypted. Some important Block cipher algorithms are DES, Triple DES, AES, etc.

B) Stream Cipher Algorithm

In this, Plain text numbers or characters are combined with pseudorandom cipher digit stream. Some important Stream cipher algorithms are RC4, A5, BLOWFISH, etc. In symmetric key encryption, The encryption code can be cracked if someone finds out the symmetric key. But this problem can be overcome with the Diffie-Hellman algorithm. In the Diffie-Hellman key exchange or agreement algorithm, the sender and receiver must agree on a symmetric key using this technique. This key can then be used for encryption or decryption purpose.

3) Asymmetric Encryption

Asymmetric encryption is also called public-key cryptography. Asymmetric key encryption helps to resolve a key exchange problem of symmetric key Cryptography. In Asymmetric encryption, Two keys are used to encrypt plain text in asymmetrical encryption. Through the internet or big network, the secret keys are exchanged. It is necessary to notice that anyone with a secret key can decrypt the message, so asymmetric encryption uses two corresponding keys to increase safety.
Anyone who wishes to send you a message will have a public key freely accessible, but the second private key is held the secret for you to understand you only. A message encrypted with a public key can be decoded with a private key. A message encrypted with a private key can also be decrypted with a public key.

We can see the working of Asymmetric encryption in the picture given below:

4) Steganography

Steganography is a technique that facilitates the hiring of a message that is to be kept secret inside other messages. Earlier, people used methods to hide messages such as invisible ink, minute variations, etc.
But in an age of technology, Steganography is a technique to conceal data that can be the file, message, image, etc., inside other files, message or images.

5) Hashing

Hashing is the cryptographic technique that converts data that can be any form into a unique string. Regardless of size or type, any data can be hashed using a hashing algorithm. It takes data of random length and converts it into a fixed hashed value.
Hashing is different from other encryption methods because, in hashing, encryption cannot be reversed; that is cannot be decrypted using keys. MD5, SHA1, SHA 256 are the widely used hashing algorithms.

Conclusion

This article has seen what cryptography and various Cryptography techniques to encrypt and decrypt the data are. Cryptography is used in all fields to secure data and prevent it from getting hacked. For example, for securing passwords, authenticating banking transactions, etc. Nowadays, various new cryptographic techniques are developed and cracked; hence, it is important always to be aware of computer threats and take precautions to avoid them as best as we can.

Cryptology methods

Cryptography Techniques

What is Cryptography in security? What are the different types of Cryptography?

History of Cryptography

Types of Cryptography

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Cryptography Techniques

Top 5 Cryptography Techniques

1) Simple Codes

2) Symmetric Encryption

3) Asymmetric Encryption

4) Steganography

5) Hashing

Conclusion

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