Encryption Algorithms in Cryptography

These days, security is the primary concern for everyone in IT. Given that $155 billion in expenditure on information security and risk management is expected to increase to $172 billion in 2022, according to Gartner, it must be. While there are many tools you can purchase to protect your data, encryption is one security tool that every computer user should be familiar with.

Why Encryption Is Useful?

Encryption is a technique for making data messages or files unreadable, guaranteeing that only a person with the proper authorization may access that data. Data is encrypted using sophisticated algorithms, and the same data is then decrypted using a key that is supplied by the message's sender. Information is kept secret and confidential by encryption while it is being stored or sent. Any unauthorized access will just reveal a disorganized collection of bytes.

You should be familiar with the following concepts related to encryption:

Algorithm

Algorithms, sometimes referred to as ciphers, are the guidelines or directions for the encryption procedure. The efficiency of the encryption depends on the key length, capabilities, and characteristics of the employed encryption method.

Decryption

Decryption is the process of turning unintelligible cipher text into understandable data.

Key

A random string of bits called an encryption key is used to encrypt and decode data. Longer keys are more difficult to break, and each key is different. Public keys typically have a length of 2048 bits, whereas private keys often have 128 or 256 bits.

Asymmetric and symmetric cryptographic key schemes are both available.

Symmetric Keys Systems

Everyone who accesses the data in a symmetric key system uses the same key. To maintain anonymity, encryption and decryption keys must also be kept a secret. While this is technically conceivable, it is impracticable to employ symmetric encryption for extensive commercial usage due to the need for securely distributing the keys to guarantee the right controls are in place.

Asymmetric Keys Systems

A public/private key system, sometimes referred to as an asymmetric key system, employs two keys. The private key is the only key that is kept a secret, although everyone else has access to the other key. The public key is what is known as. Due to the mathematical connection between the private and public keys, only the appropriate private key may decode data that has been encrypted with the help of the public key.

Practice of Encryption

Here's an illustration of how encryption functions using the email-friendly programme Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), often known as GnuPG or GPG for fans of open-source software. Let's say I want to message you privately. I use one of the programmes on the following list to encrypt it.

The advice is as follows:

The message is transformed into a garbled tangle of random characters after encryption. But if you have the key I provide you, you may unlock it and discover the message's original content.

Even if someone manages to access your network or system, encryption works to keep prying eyes out of your company, whether it's in transit like our hot dog party email or sitting on your hard drive.

The technology comes in a range of shapes and sizes, with key size and strength often indicating the biggest variations from one type to the next.

Typical Cryptography Algorithms

1. Triple DES

The original Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm was intended to be replaced by Triple DES, but hackers soon figured out how to easily break it. At one point, the most popular symmetric algorithm in the market and the recommended standard were both are Triple DES.

The three separate keys of Triple DES each have a length of 56 bits. Although the entire key length is 168 bits, experts contend that a key strength of 112 bits is more realistic. Despite being gradually phased down, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) has largely taken the role of Triple DES.

2. AES

The U.S. Government and several organizations trust the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm as the industry standard. Despite being quite effective in 128-bit version, AES also employs keys of 192 and 256 bits for use in heavy-duty encryption.

With the exception of brute force, which tries to read communications by utilizing every combination of the 128, 192, or 256-bit cipher, AES is generally thought to be immune to all assaults.

3. RSA Security

The industry standard for encrypting data exchanged over the internet is the public-key algorithm RSA. It also happens to be a technique employed by PGP and GPG software. Due to the usage of a pair of keys, RSA is regarded as an asymmetric algorithm as opposed to Triple DES. You can encrypt a message with your public key and decode it with your private key. RSA encryption produces a massive amount of gibberish that would need a lot of time and computing power to decipher for an attacker.

4. Blowfish

Another algorithm intended to take the place of DES is called blowfish. With this symmetric cipher, each message is encrypted separately after being divided into blocks of 64 bits. Blowfish is renowned for its incredible speed and all-around efficiency. Vendors, however, have made the most of its unfettered accessibility in the public domain. Blowfish may be found in software areas including e-commerce platforms for protecting payments and password management systems for password protection. One of the most adaptable encryption techniques is this one.

5. Twofish

Bruce Schneier, a specialist in computer security, is the creator of Blowfish and its sequel Twofish. This algorithm allows for the usage of keys up to 256 bits long, and because it uses a symmetric approach, only one key is required.

One of the swiftest of its kind, Twofish is excellent for usage in both hardware and software contexts. Twofish is also freely accessible to anyone who wants to utilize it, much as Blowfish.

A short history of Triple DES and DES

The National Bureau of Standards, later known as NIST, recognized the need for a federal standard for encrypting sensitive, unclassified data in the early 1970s. Early suggestions for the new DES were rejected. Later, IBM Corporation presented a block cipher under the name of Lucifer in 1974. A modified version was accepted as a Federal Information Processing Standard in 1976 after discussion with the National Security Agency (NSA), and it was released on January 15, 1977, as FIPS PUB 46. It might be used to any unclassified data.

The key size was decreased from 128 bits to 56 bits in the authorized method, and substitution boxes (S-boxes) created under covert circumstances was the two most noticeable modifications between it and the original Lucifer cipher. The part of the algorithm that does substitution is called an S-box.

Many experts believed that the NSA had somehow incorporated a backdoor into the algorithm to enable the agency to decode data encrypted by DES without needing to know the encryption key and that the reduced key size rendered DES more vulnerable to brute-force assaults. Thirteen years later, it was found that the S-boxes were resistant to differential cryptanalysis, a 1990 widely disclosed attack. This implies that the NSA knew about this assault in 1977.

DES was immediately accepted despite these objections, which greatly increased the study and creation of encryption systems. In 1983, 1988, and 1993, it was confirmed as the norm. But as computers' processing capacity increased, DES became more open to brute-force assaults. Although there are over 72 quadrillion possible combinations in a 56-bit key space, this no longer offers the necessary levels of security. In 2005, the algorithm was discontinued.

The Triple DES standard, FIPS PUB 46-3, was released in 1999 to obviate the need to create a whole new cipher and to make replacing DES reasonably simple. It is currently suffering the same fate as its forerunner.

The Evolution of Cryptography

Security experts must continually come up with new plans and techniques to fend off cyber attacks since they are always changing. Even the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are examining how quantum cryptography will affect the development of encryption in the future. Watch this space for fresh information.

Modern classical, binary, transistor-based computers are not very efficient at doing some sorts of computations. Quantum computing methods aim to harness quantum phenomena to do so. If and when a quantum computer with sufficient computing capacity is created, it may execute algorithms that would be able to crack many of the encryption protocols we use to safeguard our data. Matt Scholl, director of the Computer Security Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), talks about how concerned we should be about this and what steps are being taken to lessen the risk that a future quantum computer poses to our data in this interview with Taking Measure.