Cryptography | Cryptography & its Types | Types of Cryptography | Drawbacks of Cryptography

All Basic about Cryptography  

Cryptology

Cryptology is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. 

Cryptography 

Cryptography is technique of securing information and communications through use of codes so that only those person for whom the information is intended can understand it and process it. Thus preventing unauthorized access to information. The prefix “crypt” means “hidden” and suffix graphy means “writing”.

Definition: 

Cryptography is associated with the process of converting ordinary plain text into unintelligible text and vice-versa. It is a method of storing and transmitting data in a particular form so that only those for whom it is intended can read and process it. Cryptography not only protects data from theft or alteration, but can also be used for user authentication.

Features Of Cryptography.

1) Integrity

Information cannot be modified in storage or transition between sender and intended receiver without any addition to information being detected.

2) Confidentiality

Information can only be accessed by the person for whom it is intended and no other person except him can access it.

3) Non-repudiation

The creator/sender of information cannot deny his or her intention to send information at later stage.

4) Authentication

The identities of sender and receiver are confirmed. As well as destination/origin of information is confirmed.

Drawbacks of Cryptography 

1) Cryptography does not guard against the vulnerabilities and threats that emerge from the poor design of systems.

2) It is always vulnerable to brute force attack.

3) Cryptography comes at cost in terms of time and money.

4) It depends on the secret key if you forget the keys you cannot recover data.

Types Of Cryptography

There are three types of cryptography

1) Symmetric-key cryptography

2) Asymmetric Key Cryptography

3) Hash functions.

Symmetric-key Cryptography 

Both the sender and receiver share a single key. The sender uses this key to encrypt plaintext and send the cipher text to the receiver. On the other side the receiver applies the same key to decrypt the message and recover the plain text.

Asymmetric Key Cryptography 

This is the most revolutionary concept in the last 300-400 years. In Public-Key Cryptography two related keys (public and private key) are used. Public key may be freely distributed, while its paired private key, remains a secret. The public key is used for encryption and for decryption private key is used.

Hash Functions

No key is used in this algorithm. A fixed-length hash value is computed as per the plain text that makes it impossible for the contents of the plain text to be recovered. Hash functions are also used by many operating systems to encrypt passwords.