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| Info | |
|---|---|
| Author | cake |
| Date added | 2006-12-05 |
| Last modified | 2006-12-05 |
Basic knowledge encryption and encoding (translated by Cake)
(translated by Cake)
Lines or words between [ ] are considered outdated by the admin.
"Everything what we need to secure ourselves, is a good encryption and that's all it takes". That's what we get to hear all the time. Information that is being protected by encryption can't be read or changed in any way. When we use encryption, we know with whom we are communicating and with that we have authentication.
Offcourse this sounds to good to be true which is the case with encryption. Encryption sure is an important part of security. It can be helpfull to protect the confidentiality and the integrity of information and to identify the source of the information. But encryption on itself is not the answer. Encryption has to be a part of a more complex security architecture. It's actually the most general used security mechanism because you can assure the confidentiality, integrity and [responsibility] of information.
Encryption however, is actually a delay action. Every encryptionmechanism can be cracked. The time and resources which are needed to return the original information are both important. The attacker can also try other weak spots in the mechanism.
ENCRYPTION TERMS.
~plaintext~ The information in it's original form. This is also called "cleartext".
~ciphertext~ The information after it is being encoded by an encryption algorithm.
~algoritme~ The method which is used to encrypt the information.
~sleutel~ The inputdata of the algorihm which converts plaintext to ciphertext.
~encryptie~ The conversion of plaintext to ciphertext
~decryptie~ The conversion of ciphertext to plaintext