Symmetric Encryption

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SECURING DATA THROUGH SYMMETRIC ENCRYPTION 3

Avinash

Symmetric encryption is an encryption methodology that uses a single key to encrypt (encode) and decrypt (decode) data. It's the oldest and most well-known technique for encryption. The secret key can be a word, a number, or a string of letters, and it's applied to a message. The message is changed following the rules in the key. Sender and receiver know the key and can thus code and decode any message that would use that specific key (Gibbs, n.d.). Symmetric key encryption is a way for you to encrypt a message so that only you and your intended recipient can read it. It’s one type of data encryption, but it’s not the only one. There’s also another type of encryption that’s close in name but is different in terms of what it does: asymmetric encryption. We mentioned it earlier, but just know that asymmetric encryption is what makes it possible to authenticate and exchange symmetric keys via public channels. symmetric encryption works is by encrypting and decrypting data using identical keys. The data, once encrypted into ciphertext, can’t be read or otherwise understood by anyone who doesn’t have the key. This means that you and the party you’re communicating with both need to have an identical copy of the key to communicate securely (Crane, 2021).

The five main components of a symmetric encryption system: plaintext refers to the original message that's created and sent into the encryption method. Since you're bothering to encrypt it, the plaintext most likely contains sensitive data that should not be seen by prying eyes. Encryption algorithm takes the plaintext and converts it into an unreadable format and routine may perform several passes and changes, called permutations, on the plaintext. Once it's encrypted, you'll need a key to unlock it. Secret of the scrambled text cannot be read without the key. The key holds the information on all the switches and substitutions made to the original plain text. Ciphertext is the text that is now scrambled and ready to be sent. It may look like a random stream of data and is unreadable. In the decryption algorithm secret key is applies to the ciphertext for converting back to plaintext like performing the encryption in reverse process (Gibbs, n.d.).

References:-

Crane, C. (2021, January 14). Symmetric encryption 101: Definition, how it works & when it's used. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/symmetric-encryption-101-definition-how-it-works-when-its-used/

Gibbs, M. (n.d.). Symmetric Encryption: Definition & Example. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://study.com/academy/lesson/symmetric-encryption-definition-example.html

Preethi

Symmetric encryption combines the security of symmetric cryptography with the speed and efficiency of public-key cryptography. They can encrypt a file or message with symmetric cryptography and send it on to a receiver without revealing the key. With asymmetric cryptography, they can encrypt a bit or a single bit, such as one letter of the alphabet, and then encrypt the encrypted bit and the entire message with a key. The main issues that arise from using a public key in asymmetric cryptography include: The use of a shared secret can significantly reduce the computational overhead of cryptography. Instead of being a one-time, random string, multiple parties can potentially use a public key to access a database simultaneously. When two people want to communicate with each other, they can exchange the public key, and then each can recover an equivalent private key from the database. The key then becomes part of the shared secret, which a trusted third party can verify. It has sometimes referred to as a public key certificate (Li, 2021).

Symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms have nothing in common. The symmetric key cryptosystem can exist for a very long time, and after only a few months' operation time, most of the key material is gone. With public-key cryptosystems, the period between key material vanishing and key material emerging again varies considerably. The term asymmetric can also refer to a block cipher that can only encrypt data in fixed-length blocks. It sometimes has a block cipher. In modern public-key cryptography, the encryption and decryption operations on a public key have to conduct in reverse order. In practice, the reverse is often not true. For example, suppose Alice wanted to send a digitally signed message. In that case, she could first encrypt her message, decrypt the digital signature by first encrypting the encrypted message, and decrypting the digitally signed message. It is also common to encrypt and decrypt two separate messages. Key management is a complex issue; it is much like security. It can involve things like the encryption algorithms used, the types of keys created, and the mechanisms used for maintaining the key. In some cases, keys can store in electronic files on the key holder's computer (Patranabis & Mukhopadhyay, 2021).

 

References

Li, M. (2021). Automatic Encryption Method of Sensor Network Capture Data Based on Symmetric Algorithm. Wireless Personal Communications, 1-15.

Patranabis, S., & Mukhopadhyay, D. (2021). Forward and backward private conjunctive searchable symmetric encryption. In NDSS Symposium 2021 (virtual).