Cryptography: (Slides Edited by Erin Chambers)
Cryptography: (Slides Edited by Erin Chambers)
Cryptography
(slides edited by Erin Chambers)
Cryptography
Cryptography
The field of study related to encoded information
(comes from Greek word for "secret writing")
Encryption
The process of converting plaintext into ciphertext
Decryption
The process of converting ciphertext into plaintext
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Cryptography
Encryption
plaintext ciphertext
message message
Decryption
Cipher
An algorithm used to encrypt and decrypt
text
Key
The set of parameters that guide a cipher
Neither is any good without the other
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Substitution Ciphers
• A cipher that substitutes one character
with another.
• These can be as simple as swapping a
list, or can be based on more complex
rules.
• These are NOT secure anymore, but they
used to be quite common. What has
changed?
Caesar ciphers
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C
Substitute the letters in the second row for the letters in the
top row to encrypt a message
Encrypt(COMPUTER) gives FRPSXWHU
Substitute the letters in the first row for the letters in the
second row to decrypt a message
Decrypt(Encrypt(COMPUTER))
= Decrypt(FRPSXWHU) = COMPUTER
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Transposition Cipher
T O D A Y
+ I S + M
O N D A Y
Write the letters in a row of five, using '+' as a blank. Encrypt by starting
spiraling inward from the top left moving counter clockwise
Encrypt(TODAY IS MONDAY) gives T+ONDAYMYADOIS+
Decrypt by recreating the grid and reading the letters across the row
The key are the dimension of the grid and the route used to encrypt the
data
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Cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis
The process of decrypting a message
without knowing the cipher or the key used
to encrypt it
Substitution and transposition ciphers are
easy for modern computers to break
To protect information more sophisticated
schemes are needed
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Encryption on computers
• Roughly speaking, there are two different broad
types of encryption that are used on computers
today
– Symmetric encryption relies on keeping keys totally
secret
– Asymmetric encryption actually publicizes one key,
but keeps some information private also
• Neither is really “better” - they just use different
principles.
• In reality, both are vulnerable to attacks.
Symmetric, or private key
cryptography
• Most common type is called a block cipher
– Processes the plaintext in fixed sizes blocks
What is it?
An approach in which each user has two related
keys, one public and one private
One's public key is distributed freely
A person encrypts an outgoing message, using
the receiver's public key.
Only the receiver's private key can decrypt the
message
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Basic operations
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