Have you wondered how one might define security-even securityfor a cryptographic concept as simple and familiar as encryption?

What makes publicpublic-key cryptography possible? What other tools can cryptography offer? Are there limits to the magic of cryptography?

WHAT IS CRYPTOGRAPHY??

The science of writing a secret code  Derived from the Greek word krypts lgos , meaning hidden word .  An interdisciplinary subject. It can be defined as the conversion of data into a scrambled code that can be deciphered and sent across a public or private network.

History of cryptography
Classical cryptogra phy
A Scytale, an early device for encryption.

Medieval cryptography

The first page of al-Kindi's manuscript On Deciphering Cryptographic Messages, containing the first descriptions ofcryptanalysis and frequency analysis.

World War II cryptography

The Enigma machine was widely used by Nazi Germany; its cryptanalysis by the Allies provided vital Ultra intelligence.

SIGABA is described in U.S. Patent 6,175,625, filed in 1944 but not issued until 2001. Modern cryptanalysts sometimes harness large numbers of integrated circuits. This board is part of the EFF DES cracker, which contained over 1800 custom chips and could brute force a DES key in a matter of days.

Modern cryptography

ITS PURPOSE??
 In data and telecommunications, cryptography is necessary

when communicating over any untrusted medium, which includes just about any network, particularly the internet. Within the context of any application-to-application communication, there are some specific security requirements, like: Authentication: The process of proving one's identity Privacy/confidentiality: Ensuring that no one can read the message except the intended receiver. Integrity: Assuring the receiver that the received message has not been altered in any way from the original. Non-repudiation: A mechanism to prove that the sender really sent this message.

SPEAK LIKE A CRYPTO GEEK!!

 Plain text: The original message that has to be encrypted and     
 
sent across a network. Cipher text: The transformed message ie. the text after encryption, is called cipher text. Cipher: It is an algorithm to transform a plain text message into a cipher text. Encipher (encode): It is the process of converting plaintext to cipher text using a cipher and a key. Decipher (decode): It is the process of converting Cipher text back into plaintext using a cipher and a key. Key: It is some critical information used by the cipher, to encrypt or decrypt known only to the sender & receiver. Initialization Vector :Random values used with ciphers to ensure no patterns are created during encryption. Cryptosystem : The combination of algorithm, key, and key management functions used to perform cryptographic operations

TYPES OF CRYPTOGRAPHIC ALGORITHMS:

Secret Key Cryptography

(SKC): Uses a single key for both

encryption and decryption. It is also known as the symmetric cipher.

Public Key Cryptography

(PKC): Uses one key for encryption and

another for decryption. It is also known as the asymmetric cipher.

Hash Functions: Uses a

mathematical transformation to encrypt information.

SECRET KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY:

      

In a symmetric cipher, both parties must use the same key for encryption and decryption. This means that the encryption key must be shared between the two parties before any messages can be decrypted. The sender uses a key (or some set of rules) to encrypt the plaintext and sends the cipher text to the receiver. The receiver applies the same key to decrypt the message and recover the plaintext. With this form of cryptography, it is obvious that the key must be known to both the sender and the receiver; that, in fact, is the secret. The biggest difficulty with this approach, of course, is the distribution of the key. Symmetric systems are also known as shared secret systems or private key systems. Symmetric ciphers are significantly faster than asymmetric ciphers, but the requirements for key exchange make them difficult to use.

Figure showing the process of SKC

PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY:

 Modern PKC was first described publicly

by Stanford University professor Martin Hellman and graduate student Whitfield Diffie in 1976.
In an asymmetric cipher, the encryption

key and the decryption keys are separate. Here, each person has two keys. One key, the public key, is shared publicly. The second key, the private key, should never be shared with anyone.
While sending the message, you encrypt

the message using the recipients public key.

The recipient then decrypts the message

using his private key.

HASH FUNCTIONS:
 Hash functions, also called one-way

encryption, are algorithms that, in some sense, use no key.  Instead, a fixed-length hash value is computed based upon the plaintext that makes it impossible for the contents to be recovered.  Hash algorithms are typically used to provide a digital fingerprint of a file's contents, often used to ensure that the file has not been altered by an intruder or virus.  Hash functions are also commonly employed by many operating systems to encrypt passwords.

ADVANTAGES:
 Cryptography not only protects data from theft or alteration, but can also be used for user authentication.  Allowing people to do business electronically without worries of deceit and deception.  No one can read the message except the intended receiver.

DISADVANTAGES:
 Transmission of very large documents is

prohibitive in public key cryptography.  In a secret-key system, by contrast, the secret keys must be transmitted (either manually or through a communication channel), and there may be a chance that an enemy can discover the secret keys during their transmission.  For example, the Kerberos secret-key authentication system involves a central database that keeps copies of the secret keys of all users; an attack on the database would allow widespread forgery.