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Lesson Plan 5

The document outlines the curriculum for understanding data security, focusing on encryption types and their purposes. It explains the importance of encryption in protecting sensitive data during transmission, detailing symmetric and asymmetric encryption methods. Key concepts include plaintext, ciphertext, and the necessity of keeping encryption keys secure.

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7 views14 pages

Lesson Plan 5

The document outlines the curriculum for understanding data security, focusing on encryption types and their purposes. It explains the importance of encryption in protecting sensitive data during transmission, detailing symmetric and asymmetric encryption methods. Key concepts include plaintext, ciphertext, and the necessity of keeping encryption keys secure.

Uploaded by

isheanesu2222
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WISETECH COLLEGE

curriculum

F4
CS
MR CHIRINDA
FOCUS: UNDERSTANDING DATA SECURITY

Success criteria

Some (A-A*): Describe and Explain the two types of Encryption In Data
Security

Most (B-A): Understand the need for and purpose of


encryption when transmitting data

ALL (C-B): Define Encryption

Keywords: : Encryption, Symmetric, Asymmetric


The purpose of encryption

• When data is transmitted over any public network (wired or wireless),


there is always a risk of it being intercepted by, for example, a hacker.
Under these circumstances, a hacker is often referred to as an
eavesdropper. Using encryption helps to minimize this risk.

• Encryption alters data into a form that is unreadable by anybody for


whom the data is not intended. It cannot prevent the data being
intercepted, but it stops it from making any sense to the eavesdropper.
This is particularly important if the data is sensitive or confidential (for
example, credit card/bank details, medical history or legal documents)
Plaintext and ciphertext

• The original data being sent is known as plaintext. Once it has gone
through an encryption algorithm, it produces ciphertext
Symmetric and asymmetric
encryption
• Symmetric encryption uses an encryption key; the same key is used to
encrypt and decrypt the encoded message. First of all, consider a simple
system that uses a 10-digit denary encryption key (this gives 1 × 1010
possible codes); and a decryption key. Suppose our encryption key is:
4291362856
which means every letter in a word is shifted across the alphabet +4,+2, +9,
+1, and so on, places. For example, here is the message COMPUTER
SCIENCE IS EXCITING (plaintext on the top line of Figure 2.19) before and
after applying the encryption key (forming the ciphertext shown on the
bottom line of Figure 2.19)
To get back to the original message, it will be necessary to apply the same
decryption key; that is, 4 2 9 1 3 6 2 8 5 6. But in this case, the decryption
process would be the reverse of encryption and each letter would be
shifted –4, –2, –9, –1, and so on. For example, ‘G’ ‘C’, ‘Q’ ‘O’, ‘V’ ‘M’, ‘Q’
‘P’, and so on.
However, modern computers could ‘crack’ this encryption key in a matter
of seconds. To try to combat this, we now use 256-bit binary encryption
keys that give 2256 (approximately, 1.2 × 1077) possible combinations.
(Even this may not be enough as we head towards quantum computers.)
• The real difficulty is keeping the encryption key a secret (for example,
it needs to be sent in an email or a text message which can be
intercepted). Therefore, the issue of security is always the main
drawback of symmetrical encryption, since a single encryption key is
required for both sender and recipient
Asymmetric encryption

• Asymmetric encryption was developed to overcome the security


problems associated with symmetric encryption. It makes use of two
keys called the public key and the private key:
• » public key (made available to everybody) » private key (only known
to the computer user)
• Both types of key are needed to encrypt and decrypt messages.
• We will use an example to explain how this works; suppose Tom and Jane
work for the same company and Tom wishes to send a confidential
document to Jane:
• 1 Jane uses an algorithm to generate a matching pair of keys (private and
• public) that they must keep stored on their computers; the matching
pairs of
• keys are mathematically linked but can’t be derived from each other.
• 2 Jane now sends her public key to Tom
• Tom now uses Jane’s public key ( ) to encrypt the document he wishes
to send to her. He then sends his encrypted document (ciphertext)
back to Jane.
• Jane uses her matching private key ( ) to unlock Tom’s document and
decrypt it; this works because the public key used to encrypt the
document and the private key used to decrypt it are a matching pair
generated on Jane’s computer. (Jane can’t use the public key to
decrypt the message.

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