INTRODUCTION:Hello all, this article is about Cryptography.We're going to talk about:
- What is Cryptography
- Goals of Cryptography
- What is Encryption
- What is Decryption
- Asymmetric Encryption
- Symmetric Encryption
- Hashing
Let's begin...What is Cryptography?Cryptography is the art of creating puzzles and solving them. In Tech talk, cryptography is the art of hiding data and securing it from the bad guys. Cryptography can also be used to verify a file - whether it's been altered or changed. It contains the algorithm that hides the data and how we'll release the data by creating a key that unhides the data. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Goals Of CryptographyCryptography has three main goals:
- Confidentiality( Data Privacy )
- Data Integrity
- Authentication
Confidentiality:This is the most commonly addressed goals. Meaning, the message is encoded and concealed, the sender encrypts it by using the cryptographic key and the recipient decrypts the message by the key.
Data Integrity:It ensures that the message sent was not modified along the way. Hashing can be used to create a unique message digest from the message that's sent along with the message. The recipient creates a second digest to compare it with the original.
Authentication:A user or system can prove their identity to another who does not have personal knowledge of their identity. Accomplished using digital certificates.
What is Encryption?Encryption is the process in which the data goes through a lot of math functions and hides it by making it unreadable - i.e making the data scrambled. This is the most effective way to achieve security data security.Actually, it hides all the data and creates a key. Therefore, the data can only be read by unlocking it with the key. It's like a home lock. You lock your home so that no bad guy can get in. The lock has the key and only the right people have the key to get in. No one else can get in.
What is Decryption?Decryption is the process of converting the encrypted data to its original form or readable form by using a specific key.
What is Asymmetric Encryption?As I mentioned earlier, when the data is encrypted, a key is created. Asymmetric creates a pair of keys - one private and one public. One encrypts and the other one decrypts. The keys are interchangeable, in the sense that if key X encrypts a message, then Y can decrypt it. And, if key Y encrypts a message, then key X can decrypt it.
What is Symmetric Encryption?It's a type of encryption in which the same secret key is used to encrypt and the same key is used to decrypt.
Hashing?Hashing is the checking of a file's integrity to see if that it's not been modified or changed. You can calculate your files hash and compare it if the two hashes are same. If this is the case, the file has not been modified. If it does show a change, then the file has been modified.
Hope you'll learn something from this post :)-Nayani
