S19. Summarize modern standards for encryption and hash algorithms Flashcards
What are encryption and hash algorithms?
Encryption and hash algorithms are important tools for ensuring data security, integrity, and privacy.
What is encryption used for?
Encryption protects the confidentiality of data by converting it into an unreadable format that can only be reverted to its original form using a decryption key.
What is hashing used for?
Hashing can be used to generate a checksum to control that data has not been altered, or to store sensitive information like passwords, since the hash cannot be reversed to obtain the original plaintext data.
How are encryption standards established?
Encryption standards are established by organizations like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and they provide guidelines for robust cryptographic practices.
What are some commonly used encryption algorithms?
AES, RSA, ECC
What is AES?
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard): A symmetric encryption algorithm widely used across various applications. It supports key sizes of 128, 192, and 256 bits and is known for its strong security and efficiency. AES is the standard for encrypting sensitive data in both government and commercial sectors.
What is RSA?
RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman): An asymmetric encryption algorithm used for secure data transmission. It relies on the computational difficulty of factoring large prime numbers. RSA keys typically range from 2048 to 4096 bits, providing strong security for key exchange, digital signatures, and data encryption.
What is ECC?
ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography): An asymmetric encryption algorithm known for providing high security with shorter key lengths compared to RSA. ECC is widely used in mobile devices and other environments where computational efficiency and reduced power consumption are important.
What is the modern standard for hashing?
The modern standard for hashing is the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)
What is SHA-2?
SHA-2 is a family of cryptographic hash functions, including SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512. It is designed to provide strong resistance against collision and preimage attacks, ensuring data integrity and authenticity.
What is SHA-3?
SHA-3 offers an alternative to SHA-2 with different internal structures. It provides robust security and is suitable for various applications, including digital signatures and hash-based message authentication codes (HMACs).
