Data Encryption for Information Security

In layman terms, encryption or cryptography is a process of converting readable or understandable information to a form that cannot be understood or read. This information, which cannot be read or understood, is often known to be ciphered information or encrypted data. The process of recovering the encrypted information is called Decryption.

Since quondam times, governments and the military forces have used encryption for transferring confidential information across. The very first use of encryption can be seen in times of Roman leader Julius Caesar where Julius Caesar used a very basic method of encoding text. Julius Caesar encrypted text messages and passed the same to his generals at war. The encryption method used by Julius came to be known as Caesar's Cipher or Shift Cipher and is the simplest and most widely used encoding method even today.
Encryption by its own self suffice for encrypting data but a method known as Message Authentication Code (MAC) or Digital Signatures add to the protection level and integrity. Message Authentication is a piece of information that is used to authenticate encrypted data. Digital Signatures are considered to be better than MAC and can be used to create different secret keys for sender and receiver. This way the information is more secure and authentic.

Today, we might find a lot of encryption software but sometimes they alone cannot be sufficient to provide top-notch information security. A single slip up in encrypting the information properly can result into security breach. Encryption cannot be regarded as a perfect solution for your information security needs. Attack methods like traffic analysis, brute force or TEMPEST can still crack the encryption algorithm. Although a lot of algorithms we find today such as RSA and DES (Data Encryption Standard) are prominently very complex to break, but still it is possible to break them, even though very rarely.

Why Encryption

Due to the introduction and growth of various avenues of information such as the Internet, the need for encrypting data over communication lines has risen multifold. A lot of personal and private information travel over Internet lines such as credit card information, social security numbers, personal details, bank information, etc. Hence, it has become very essential that the data that travels over the web should be secure. Encryption takes care of these factors and provides you with the best network and Internet security through forms of Digital Certificates and Secure Socket Layers. These certificates consist of complex encryption algorithms such as RSA and DES with key size ranging up to 1024 bit.
Also encryption is very essential for the national security of a country. Military communications can be tapped by terrorists and anti social elements; hence it becomes very essential to use encryption to communicate.

Types of Encryption Systems

• Symmetric-key encryption
  Symmetric-key encryption or single key encryption encrypts or decrypts data with the use of a single secret key. This secret key can be shared with two or more people who are authorized to view the encrypted information. Popular symmetric-key encryption algorithms are IDEA, RC4, Blowfish, etc.
• Public-key encryption
  Public-key encryption is also known as asymmetric encryption or Diffie-Hellman encryption. Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman were the ones who invented the public-key encryption system in 1976. Unlike, in symmetric encryption where we have a single secret key, public-key cryptography consists of a pair of keys known as private key and public key. Everyone can know the public key whereas only the recipient of the encrypted message knows the private key. For example, if X wants to send an encrypted message to Y, X will encrypt the message with Y's public key and dispatch the message to Y, Y in turn will apply his private key over X's message and decrypt it. This kind of encryption is designed such a way that recipient's public key is used to encrypt messages intended to be sent to that particular recipient and only the corresponding private key can be used decrypt the message. It is not possible to ascertain or know the private key with the help of a public key. In other words, we cannot deduce a private key from public key in any manner. Examples of public-key encryption algorithms are RSA encryption algorithm (PKCS), DSS (Digital Signature Standard), Various Elliptic Curve techniques, Paillier cryptosystem, ElGamal, etc.

Encryption system algorithms comprise complex mathematics and are very difficult to break although we still find some attacks on these algorithms time and again. Apparently, mathematical and technological advances would still take over and make it virtually impossible to crack these algorithms.