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How to get the case off your PC
This is the first step to servicing, upgrading or removing PC hardware from your PC. Refer to my other articles on adding, upgading or removing just about any piece of hardware. First things first, get that case off your PC. This is usually done by...
Music CD-R vs. Data CD-R: Is There A Difference?
You wouldn't believe how many times I run across this question. Is there a difference between music CD-Rs and traditional data CD-Rs? I think what people really want to know is if I buy a data CDR can I still put audio on it and vice versa. Well,...
Streaming Audio Made Easy
MP3 Sound Stream - Sound Bytes by Quentin Brown December 16, 2003 Internet streaming audio is the most prevalent form of multimedia on the Internet today according to Creative, one of the leading companies in the sound hardware field. Over the last...
The Database Design Alalysis - Business perspective
The Database Design Analysis phase - Where it all starts. The business perspective The analysis phase of our database design website deals with the early stage of a business system lifecycle. This is the phase we enter after strategic requirements...
What to Consider when Taking your CMMS Mobile
More and more companies are automating their mobile workforce. They want workers in the field to have access to corporate databases and applications such as computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), field service systems and facilities...
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Seecrets On Security: A Gentle Introduction To Cryptography
With the increasing incidence of identity thefts, credit card frauds, social engineering attacks, the digital world is facing challenges in the years ahead. Obviously, cryptography, a young science, will play a prominent role in the security of protecting digital assets. This article tries to explain the basics of cryptography (encryption) using plain language.
Let us take the example of scrambling an egg. First, crack the shell, pour the contents into a bowl and beat the contents vigorously until you achieved the needed result - well, a scrambled egg. This action of mixing the molecules of the egg is encryption. Since the molecules are mixed-up, we say the egg has achieved a higher state of entropy (state of randomness). To return the scrambled egg to its original form (including uncracking the shell) is decryption. Impossible?
However, if we substitute the word “egg” and replace it with “number”, “molecules” with “digits”, it is POSSIBLE. This, my friend, is the exciting world of cryptography (crypto for short). It is a new field dominated by talented mathematicians who uses vocabulary like "non-linear polynomial relations", "overdefined systems of multivariate polynomial equations", "Galois fields", and so forth. These cryptographers uses language that mere mortals like us cannot pretend to understand.
In the computer, everything stored are numbers. Your MP3 file is a number. Your text message is a number. Your address book is a longer number. The number 65 represents the character "A", 97 for the small "a", and so on.
For humans, we recognize numbers with the digits from 0 to 9, where else, the computer can only recognize 0 or 1. This is the binary system which uses bits instead of digits. To convert bits to digits, just simply multiply the number of bits by 0.3 to get a good estimation. For example, if you have 256-bits of Indonesian Rupiah (one of the lowest currency denomination in the world), Bill Gates’ wealth in comparison would be microscopic.
The hexadecimal (base 16) system uses the ten digits from 0 to 9, plus the six extra symbols from A to F. This set has sixteen different “digits”, hence the hexadecimal name. This notation is useful for computer workers to peek into the "real contents" stored by the computer. Alternatively, treat
these different number systems as currencies, be it Euro, Swiss Franc, British Pound and the like. Just like an object can be priced with different values using these currencies, a number can also be "priced" in these different number systems as well.
To digress a bit, have you ever wondered why you had to study prime numbers in school? I am sure most mathematics teachers do not know this answer. Answer: A subbranch called public-key cryptography which uses prime numbers especially for encrypting e-mails. Over there, they are talking of even bigger numbers like 2048, 4096, 8192 bits.)
When we want to encrypt something, we need to use a cipher. A cipher is just an algorithm similar to a recipe for baking a cake. It has precise, unambiguous steps. To carry out the encryption process, you need a key (some called it passphrase). A good practice in cryptography needs the key used by a cipher must be of high entropy to be effective.
Data Encryption Standard (DES), introduced as a standard in the late 1970's, was the most commonly used cipher in the 1980's and early 1990's. It uses a 56-bit key. It was broken in the late 1990’s with specialized computers costing about US$250,000 in 56 hours. With today's (2005) hardware, it is possible to crack within a day.
Subsequently, Triple-DES superseded DES as the logical way to preserve compatibility with earlier investments by big corporations (mainly banks). It uses two 56-bit key using three steps:-
1. Encrypt with Key 1.
2. Decrypt with Key 2.
3. Encrypt with Key 1.
The effective key length used is only 112-bits (equivalent to 34 digits). The key is any number between 0 and 5192296858534827628530496329220095. Some modify the last process using Key 3, making it more effective at 168-bit keys.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was adopted as a standard by the National Institute of Standards
About the Author
The author, Stan Seecrets, is a veteran software developer with 25 years experience at (http://www.seecrets.biz) which specializes in protecting digital assets. This site provides quality software priced like books, free-reprint articles on stock charts and computer security, free downloads. © Copyright 2005, Stan Seecrets. All rights reserved.
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