Key and cipher overview
- 1. Information about key and ciphers ● Encryption is only as strong as the key used to run the cipher in most cases. ● A strong key is essential to have effective encryption. ● Many of the most used ciphers are freely available to all, therefore the key is very important.
- 2. ● Key length is normally referred to in bits – The longer the key length, typically the more secure the key – A short key (ex. 8 bit) could be easily guessed by a normal computer – A long key (ex. 256 bit) would be very difficult and time consuming for a computer to guess. – The computer would have to generate every single number that the key could be, which if it is a long key, could be billions (or more!) of numbers. – It would then have to apply every one of those numbers to the cipher until the key was found
- 3. ● The combination of a long length key, and a complex cipher can make encryption effectively unbreakable – It's commonly accepted that no encryption is “unbreakable”, but the intent of the encryption is to make it so difficult and expensive to break the encryption that no one would attempt it. – For example, the National Security Agency maintains that 128bit encryption ran through the AES cipher is acceptable for use for all civilian activities ● 128bit AES encryption is acceptable for the Government to encrypt up to Secret information
- 4. ● 192bit AES encryption is considered good enough to encrypt up to Top Secret information ● 256bit encryption is considered to be so good that so far no one has been able to break it (or admitted to breaking it).
- 5. ● Encryption standards and products are typically mandated and controlled by the government. – Generally ciphers are governed by the government as a class of weapon – Exporting a cipher to another country can end with you arrested for weapons trafficking and terrorism charges – The man that developed and released free- of-charge the encryption standard that you probably use in your email account was charged with weapon based offenses for doing so.
- 6. Summary ● Encryption will only be as good as the cipher and length of key that you use. ● Control of ciphers is tightly managed by the US Government (particularly the NSA) ● Proper use of ciphers and good keys can make your computer magnitudes more secure.
- 7. Summary ● Encryption will only be as good as the cipher and length of key that you use. ● Control of ciphers is tightly managed by the US Government (particularly the NSA) ● Proper use of ciphers and good keys can make your computer magnitudes more secure.