Tech Tide By CSE 23

Have you ever tried the game "Caesar Cipher"?  You may have encountered it before.  Did you know that the concept behind that simple game is frequently used and is an important foundation in Computing and data security? Let me take you through the concept of “Encryption”.

Encryption is simply a method that transforms any readable plain text to an unreadable format using an algorithm. This transformation ensures that the information is accessible only to someone who possesses the correct decryption key. The use of encryption dates back about 4000 years. The oldest known encrypted message is discovered from a tomb in the ancient kingdom of Egypt, and the archeologists have estimated that the message was written around 1900 BC. In the ancient Greek and Roman empires, encrypted messages were frequently used for their military purposes. The concept did not fade over time; there are some records found in the Medieval times that used ciphered words for various purposes.

In the modern era, the earliest notable usage of encrypted messages can be found in World War I. The English army hired cryptologists to decipher the telegram codes belonging to the German army, which led to pivotal victories for the British. A similar approach was taken at the World War II, where renowned mathematicians—including the father of modern computing, Alan Turing—made significant contributions to crack the German cryptosystem called “Enigma.” Specifically, Alan Turing’s work has established a base for algorithmic computing. 

As stated earlier, encryption is the process of converting readable plain text data to an unreadable format during data transfer to protect them from potential threats. Only those with the correct decryption key can restore the data to the original form. The encryption is mainly 2 types:

• Symmetric Ciphers

•  Asymmetric Ciphers

Symmetric Cipher method uses the same key for encryption and decryption of data. This method is also known as “shared secret” because the sender of the message must share the decryption key with the intended recipients. The most commonly used symmetric key encryption method is called the “Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)”. 

On the other hand, the Asymmetric Cipher, also known as “public key encryption,” uses 2 different but mathematically linked algorithmic keys to encrypt and decrypt data. The Rivest– Shamir – Adleman (RSA) algorithm is one of the most widely used asymmetric encryption methods.

Apart from these primary types, there are different ways to implement the encryption. Different organizations use different methods for the implementation. Some of these include

• Bring Your-Own Encryption (BYOE)

• Column-Level Encryption

• Deniable Encryption

• End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)

• HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secured)

•  Quantum Cryptography

Encrypting has many advantages compared to unencrypted data transfers. It will maintain the privacy of your data, ensuring that no third party—apart from the sender and the intended receiver—can decrypt and retrieve your messages. Your data is protected from unauthorized access, significantly reducing the risk of data breaching. No cybercriminal can alter your data when it is encrypted, and thereby you can maintain the integrity and accuracy of your data. You can protect your sensitive data, such as personal information, passwords, financial details, etc., using proper encryption methods. Moreover, you can maintain private and secure online communication through social media platforms.

Encryption has many uses in your technological life. Encryption has used to send emails, private messaging services, cloud computing, and even in web browsing. Modern hard drives utilize encryption to store data securely, preventing unauthorized computers from accessing data without correct decryption keys. This technique is commonly used to safeguard data in databases, even in the event of a security breach.   Encryption plays a pivotal role in online transactions, where sensitive information must be transferred securely and is essential for protecting passwords and digital signatures. 

As the technology continues to advance, the encryption methods are also expected to evolve. With the world now moving towards quantum computing, the future of data security is going to depend on quantum cryptography to offer more efficient and effective protection. The mathematical algorithms will become more complex so that even quantum computers will struggle to solve them. This can be achieved by increasing the encryption key sizes, which would require a large number of qubits to perform. These new and advanced methods will reduce the current limitations of modern encryption methods, such as high computational cost and high time-complexity, to ensure secure and faster data protection.

I hope this article helped you to get a basic understanding of what data encryption is and how crucial it is to transfer data securely. As we’ve seen, encryption is not only about protecting data but also about maintaining privacy, integrity, and accuracy of your data. Therefore, it is essential to staying informed about encryption and its advancements to ensure the safety of our data in the future. 

Glossary

• Cipher: put (a message) into secret writing; encode.

• Cryptography: a method of protecting information and communications using codes

• Encryption Key: a string of bits (0s and 1s) used by cryptographic algorithms to encode (encrypt) and decode (decrypt) data

• Enigma Machine: a cipher device used by the German armed forces during World War II to encrypt and decrypt messages

• Quantum Computing: utilizes quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than on classical computers

• Qubits: the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing, a qubit can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously, a state called superposition
  
  
  
  

References:   

-       Encryption – Wikipedia

-       History of Encryption – IBM

-       What is Encryption and how does it work – TechTarget

-       The advantages of data encryption – ShardSecure

-       Future Proof Encryption - Forbes