What is Cryptography in information security?


Cryptography is an automated numerical tool that plays an essential role in network security. It provides the confidentiality and integrity of data and supports authentication and non-repudiation to the users.

Cryptography can play some multiple roles in user authentication. Cryptographic authentication systems support authentication capabilities through the need of cryptographic keys known or consumed only by authorized entities. Cryptography also provides authentication through its extensive use in other authentication systems.

Password systems apply cryptography to encrypt stored password files, card/token system apply cryptography to secure sensitive stored data, and hand-held password generators often apply cryptography to make random, dynamic passwords.

Cryptography is generally used in distributed applications to transfer identification and authentication data from one system to another over a network. Cryptographic authentication systems authenticate a user depends on the awareness or possession of a cryptographic key. Cryptographic authentication systems can be depends on private key cryptosystems or public key cryptosystems.

Private key cryptosystems need the same key for the functions of both encryption and decryption. Cryptographic authentication systems depends upon private key cryptosystems based upon a shared key between the user attempting access and the authentication system.

Public key cryptosystems separate the functions of encryption and decryption, generally using an independent key to control each function. Cryptographic authentication systems depends upon public key cryptosystems based upon a key known only to the user attempting access.

Cryptography supports mechanisms for such process. A digital signature binds a record to the possessor of a specific key, while a digital timestamp binds a file to its creation at a specific time. These cryptographic mechanisms is used to control access to a shared disk drive, a high security establishment, or a pay-per-view TV channel.

The field of cryptography surrounds other uses as well. With just a few cryptographic tools, it is possible to construct elaborate designs and protocols that enable us to pay using electronic money, to prove it is know specific information without revealing the information itself, and to send a secret quantity in such a method that a subset of the shares can regenerate the secret.

While current cryptography is increasingly distinct, cryptography is basically based on problems that are complex to solve. A problem can be complex because its solution needed some secret knowledge, including decrypting an encrypted message or signing some digital information. The problem can also be complex because it is basically difficult to complete, including finding a message that make a given hash value.

Encryption is the transformation of information into a form that is as close to impossible as possible to read without the suitable knowledge. Its goal is to provide privacy by maintaining information hidden from anyone for whom it is not designed, even those who have access to the encrypted information. Decryption is the opposite of encryption; it is the conversion of encrypted information back into an intelligible form.

Ginni
Ginni

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Updated on: 04-Mar-2022

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