PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a data encryption and decryption program used in e-mail messaging, encrypting/decrypting texts, files, or even disk partitions, in order to provide security of data. The program was created in 1991, by Phil Zimmerman. Pretty Good Privacy encryption is based on using a serial combination of data compression, hashing, public-key cryptography …
The known ciphertext attack, or ciphertext only attack (COA) is an attack method used in cryptanalysis when the attacker has access to a given set of ciphertext(s). The attacker does not have access to corresponding cleartext in this method; however, COA is successful when correspdonding plaintext can be determined from a given set of ciphertext. …
Microsoft Access had no encryption capability until the release of Microsoft Access 2007. With the MS Access 2007 release, encryption is now available. Encryption Requirements To encrypt your access database you must use a new database format released with MS Access 2007, the ACCDB format. Differences between the original MDB format and the new ACCDB …
Everyone likes safety. The safety of confidential information is always of special concern. Therefore, information protection is a necessity and can be useful to companies and individuals who care about their intellectual property’s confidentiality. People who want their e-mails kept confidential and their e-mail attachments readable only to the intended recipient can appreciate information protection. …
Cryptanalysis is the study of analyzing information systems in order to “discover” or “crack” the hidden or secret aspects of those systems. More specifically, cryptanalysis is the study of breaching cryptographic security systems in order to obtain access to the information contained within encrypted messages without necessarily knowing the cryptographic key used to encrypt the …
X.509 is an ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector) standard for PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) in cryptography, which, amongst many other things, defines specific formats for PKC (Public Key Certificates) and the algorithm that verifies a given certificate path is valid under a give PKI (called the certification path validation algorithm). X.509 History X.509 began in …
In a symmetric cipher, both parties must use the same key for encryption and decryption. This means that the encryption key must be shared between the two parties before any messages can be decrypted. Symmetric systems are also known as shared secret systems or private key systems. Symmetric ciphers are significantly faster than asymmetric ciphers, …
The Diffie-Hellman key exchange was first published by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman in 1976 and is a popular method for exchanging cryptographic keys. The method is one of the most straight-forward examples of key exchanges implemented in the cryptology field and allows two individuals or parties that have not worked together before to establish …
Certificate Authority or Certification Authority (CA) is an entity, which is core to many PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) schemes, whose purpose is to issue digital certificates to use by other parties. It exemplifies a trusted third party. Some certification authorities may charge a fee for their service while some other CAs are free. It is …
Symmetric Cryptographic Algorithms DES (Data Encryption Standard) is perhaps the most widely used cryptographic algorithm. DES is based upon IBM’s Lucifer algorithm. The NBS (National Bureau of Standards) and the NSA (National Security Agency) adopted DES as a federal standard in 1977. DES is a symmetric cipher with an effective key length of 56 bits. …