Common Asymmetric Algorithms
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>> Now that we've talked about
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how asymmetric algorithms work,
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let's talk a little bit more about some of
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the specific asymmetric algorithms
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and how we're going to use them.
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I had mentioned earlier we'd seen
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a list of the common symmetric algorithms.
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Certainly, those are not
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the only symmetric algorithms in the world,
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and these are not the only
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asymmetric algorithms in the world.
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But these would be the ones that I would
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expect would come up on the exam.
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We have DSA, RSA,
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ECC, El Gamal,
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Diffie-Hellman, and Knapsack.
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What I would expect you to be able to
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do is to look at a list of
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algorithms and pick these six
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out and say those are asymmetric.
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That can be tricky because they were like 10,
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15 symmetric algorithms to memorize.
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Here, an additional six that are asymmetric.
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Let me show you just a little trick.
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What I would do is I would
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memorize the algorithms that are asymmetric.
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If they're not asymmetric,
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then they're probably symmetric.
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Don't forget, you still have
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to know your hashing algorithms
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like MD5 and SHA1, but that's okay.
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Those are Message Digest 5,
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Secure Hash Algorithm, SHA1.
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Those are okay, you can remember those as hashing.
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But if you'll remember the list of
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asymmetric algorithms and the algorithm
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you're being quizzed with isn't there,
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then assume it's symmetric.
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The way I would remember
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which algorithms are asymmetric,
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and this is totally ridiculous,
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but I would use the buddy system.
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Here's what I mean by that.
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Before you start your test,
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one of the things that I would recommend you just
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jotting down on a sheet of scrap paper is,
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which algorithms are asymmetric?
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Then again, if it's not there, it's symmetric.
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To remember which algorithms are symmetric,
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each algorithm has a buddy,
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each algorithm has a friend.
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The first two buddies are the SA brothers, RSA and DSA.
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Those are your first two buddies,
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RSA, DSA, SA brothers.
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Your next two buddies both start with E. You
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have ECC and El Gamal.
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El Gamal and ECC,
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they both start with E. That's my second group.
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The last two asymmetric algorithms
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you need to remember, are Diffie-Hellman and Knapsack.
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It may seem a little odd that those two are buddies.
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But Diffie-Hellman is frequently abbreviated DH.
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When you see DH, it's almost
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assuredly talking about the Diffie-Hellman algorithm.
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An old friend of mine used to refer to
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that algorithm as the Doogie Howser algorithm.
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For those of you that have missed this fine piece of
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quality American television programming,
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Doogie Howser was a series in the,
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I can't remember, '80s or '90s,
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something where Neil Patrick Harris
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starred as a 13-year-old brain surgeon.
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His name was Doogie Howser.
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I don't know which would be more offensive to
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me as having a 13-year-old surgeon,
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come in and introduce himself
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or him telling me his name is Doogie.
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I think that would be a problem also.
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But anyway, so Neil Patrick Harris,
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13-year-old brain surgeon's name was Doogie Howser.
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At the beginning of each show,
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during the opening credits,
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he would come in and he would have his backpack or
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his knapsack that he put into his locker.
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Doogie Howser has knapsack and
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that's how you remember those two are buddies.
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As ridiculous as it is, just close your eyes.
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Humor me. Close your eyes.
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Who are my first two buddies?
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They are the SA brothers,
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RSA and DSA. Who are the next two?
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ECC and El Gamal,
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they both start with Es.
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Who are my last two buddies?
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You will never forget,
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Doogie Howser and his knapsack,
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also known as Diffie-Hellman and his Knapsack.
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Now we're going to talk about what
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these algorithms do because
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each one has a different function, in just a second.
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But for now, just being
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able to put those on a sheet of paper.
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Let me ask you, once you do that,
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is AES symmetric or asymmetric?
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Once not on this list,
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it must be symmetric.
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What about IDEA?
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Not on this list, must be symmetric.
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What about ECC? That's on this list.
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That's an asymmetric algorithm.
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What about Skipjack?
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Symmetric. What about Blowfish?
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Symmetric. What about Twofish?
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Symmetric. What about Triple DES?
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Symmetric. If you can just
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get down on a sheet of paper
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these six asymmetric algorithms,
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well, then you're going to have a leg
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up on questions that are
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going to require you to know whether
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an algorithm is symmetric or asymmetric.
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If it's not in this list, then it's symmetric.
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But let's just talk about a couple of these
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because they have specific interest for us.
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RSA is the first one that we're going to talk about.
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It's named for the gentlemen
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that worked together to create this algorithm.
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Ron Rivest, and we have Adleman and
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Shamir and they came together
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to develop this algorithm called RSA.
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It replaced an older algorithm called DSA,
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which was the Digital Signature Algorithm.
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For today,
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the current standard for digital signatures is RSA.
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When we talk about that piece of a digital signature,
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where the hash is encrypted with
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the sender's private key,
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it's RSA that's providing that encryption.
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Really important. RSA is your guy
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>> for digital signatures.
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>> The other thing that's important or
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relevant to us about RSA is,
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it uses a unique trap-door
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>> feature called factorization.
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>> The relationship between the public
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>> and private keys with
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>> RSA is based on the idea that
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it's very easy to take
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two huge prime numbers and multiply them together.
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If I gave you a calculator right now,
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you can take those numbers and multiply them together.
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However, when you look at the result,
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it is incredibly difficult to figure out what
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two prime numbers were multiplied
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together to get that result.
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It's easy to multiply them together,
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but to look at the result and
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factor out the possibilities,
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that is incredibly time-consuming.
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That's the secret of the relationship between the keys.
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The big things to remember for RSA,
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digital signatures and that it uses factorization.
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Diffie-Hellman, a.k.a, Doogie Howser,
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is important because it was
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our first asymmetric algorithm and
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came out in the late '70s, I believe.
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Here's the phrase about Diffie-Hellman;
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secure key-agreement without pre-shared secrets.
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What is Diffie-Hellman for?
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Diffie-Hellman helps two communicating parties
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agree upon a key.
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The key that they agree upon will
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be their symmetric key that
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>> they use for data encryption.
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>> What's actually going to happen here is
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Diffie-Hellman is going to come out
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and do asymmetric key-agreement,
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once the key's agreed upon,
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then symmetric data encryption can happen.
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That's a little spoiler for
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later because that's what we want.
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We're going to use asymmetric cryptography to make sure
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both communicating parties have the same symmetric key.
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Because remember, with symmetric cryptography,
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key exchange is the hard part.
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If we use an asymmetric algorithm
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to go out and get the keys distributed,
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then we can communicate with
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that good fast symmetric cryptography
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that we want to use in the first place.
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Diffie-Hellman was the first algorithm
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that did that for us.
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It gives us secure key-agreement
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without having to send anything
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sensitive across the network.
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We also have our friend, ECC,
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which stands for Elliptical Curve Cryptography.
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Its math is based on plotting points along the curve.
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It is a really efficient algorithm
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and it can provide good,
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strong security, but only for
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>> very small amounts of data.
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>> This might be used for encryption of keys.
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Just like we saw, Diffie-Hellman can be used
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for key exchange or key-agreement,
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this can be used for key exchange,
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can be used for digital signatures as well.
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But I want you to primarily focus on using ECC as being
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the algorithm for use with
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handheld devices like our smart phones,
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our smart watches,
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these devices that need encryption,
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but don't have the same degree of
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processing capability that you would have on a desktop,
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or a server, or a larger scale computer.
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That's the big testable piece about ECC,
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is elliptical curve cryptography algorithms
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are used for devices that don't
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have a lot of power capabilities.
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We talked about asymmetric cryptography
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and figured out how all the pieces work together,
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and then we talked about how we get privacy,
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authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation.
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Last but not least,
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we looked at some of the common asymmetric algorithms,
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and just wrapped up with the function of each of those.
Up Next
Symmetric vs. Asymmetric Review
Hybrid Cryptography
Public Key Infrastructure
MACs (Message Authentication Codes)
How It All Fits Together
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