TBS - Encryption

Question 1

Encryption

Answer 1

The process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key

Question 2

Cleartext

Answer 2

aka plaintext, text that can be read and understood

Question 3

Ciphertext

Answer 3

text which has been mathematically scrambled so its meaning cannot be determined

Question 4

Key

Answer 4

used to translate cipher text to plaintext

Question 5

Risks that encryption reduces

Answer 5

Risks of privacy such as credit card numbers and personal information

Question 6

Symmetric encryption

Answer 6

aka single-key encryption or private-key encryption, uses a single algorithm to encrypt and decrypt the text. The sender uses the encryption algorithm to create the cipher text and sends the encrypted text to the recipient; the sender must let the recipient know which algorithm was used to encrypt the text and the recipient uses the same algorithm to decrypt the text

Question 7

Asymmetric encryption

Answer 7

aka public/private-key encryption and private-key encryption uses two paired encryption algorithms to encrypt and decrypt the text. If the public key is used to encrypt the text, the private key must be used to decrypt the text; converse, if the private key is used to encrypt the text, the public key must be used to decrypt the text.

Question 8

Certificate Authority (CA)

Answer 8

registers a public key on its server and sends the private key to the user; when someone wants to communicate securely with the user, they access the public key from the CA server, encrypt the message, and send it to the user; the user then uses the private key to decrypt the message

Question 9

Relative security of symmetric encryption

Answer 9

The symmetric encryption methodology is inherently insecure because the sender must always find a way to let the recipient know which encryption algorithm to use, therefore it is most commonly used with “data-at-rest”, i.e. data that is stored in an archive or data warehouse

Question 10

Relative security of asymmetric encryption

Answer 10

More complicated, cumbersome, and secure than symmetric encryption. The transmission is more secure because only the private key can decrypt the message and only the user has access to the private key. It can have compatibility problems when using mobile technology