BUS 620
Research Abstract Four
“Encryption”
What is Encryption?
Encryption,
the process of encoding information in such a way that only the person (or
computer) with the key can decode it.
Computer encryption is based on the science of cryptography, which has
been used throughout history. Before the digital age, the biggest users of
cryptography were governments, particularly for military purposes. The
existence of coded messages has been verified as far back as the
Two Major Forms of
Encryption
Most
computer encryption systems belong in one of two categories:
·
Symmetric-key encryption
·
Public-key encryption
Symmetric Key
In symmetric-key encryption, each computer has a secret key (code) that
it can use to encrypt a packet of information before it is sent over the
network to another computer. Symmetric-key requires that you know which
computers will be talking to each other so you can install the key on each one.
Symmetric-key encryption is essentially the same as a secret code that each of
the two computers must know in order to decode the information. The code
provides the key to decoding the message. Think of it like this: You create a
coded message to send to a friend in which each letter is substituted with the
letter that is two down from it in the alphabet. So "A" becomes
"C," and "B" becomes "D". You have already told a
trusted friend that the code is "Shift by 2". Your friend gets the
message and decodes it. Anyone else who sees the message will see only
nonsense.
Public Key
Public-key encryption uses a combination of a private key and a public key. The
private key is known only to your computer, while the public key is given by
your computer to any computer that wants to communicate securely with it. To
decode an encrypted message, a computer must use the public key, provided by
the originating computer, and its own private key. A very popular public-key
encryption utility is called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which allows you to
encrypt almost anything. [How stuff Works].
Modern encryption is achieved with algorithms that
use a "key" to encrypt and decrypt messages by turning text or other
data into digital gibberish and then by restoring it to its original form.
The longer the "key," the more computing
required to crack the code.
To decipher an encrypted message by brute force, one
would need to try every possible key. Computer keys are made of
"bits" of information, binary units of information that can have the
value of zero or one. So an eight-bit key has 256 (2 to the eighth power)
possible values. A 56-bit key creates 72 quadrillion possible combinations.
If the key is 128 bits long, or the equivalent of a
16-character message on a personal computer, a brute-force attack would be 4.7
sextillion (4,700,000,000,000,000,000,000) times more difficult than cracking a
56-bit key.
Given the current power of computers, a 56-bit key is
considered crackable; a 128-bit key isn't – at least not without an enormous
amount of effort. [Deciphering
Encryption]
General Enforcement Information
Due
to recent developments in software and hardware, some consumer-level encryption
products are now so powerful that law enforcement officials say they can't
crack them, even with massive supercomputers.
Encryption
has become one of the hottest hi-tech issues on Capitol Hill, as Congress
debates whether the government should step in and limit the strength of
encryption products to maintain law enforcement's historical ability to
eavesdrop electronically on anyone it wants.
There
are currently no restrictions on the use of encryption technology within the
Law-enforcement
advocates say the government should maintain export limits and maybe even
impose restrictions on domestic use of strong encryption.
But
privacy advocates and