Public-key cryptography and information security - Essay Example

PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY AND INFORMATION SECURITY Public-Key cryptography and Information Security Affiliation Public Key Cryptography (PKC) uses a key with two elements, a "public key" and a "private key", for the implementation of an encryption algorithm that doesn't require two parties (sender and receiver) to first exchange a secret key in an attempt to carry out the process of communication. In this scenario, the public key part is used for encryption entirely at the receiver side, whose private key part is applied for decryption.

However, in order to make this communication safe it is necessary to make sure that only the intended receiver is able to access the private part of the key. Moreover, this concept is also used in elegant implementation of digital signatures (Tschabitscher, 2011) and (Adleman, Rivest, Shamir, & Williamson, 2010). Public key cryptography is considered as extremely protected for the reason that it does not require a secret common key between the receiver and sender. However, other encryption methods and technologies that utilize a single common key to both decrypt and encrypt information depend mutually on both parties (sender and receiver) in order to make a decision about a key ahead of time exclusive of other parties finding what that key is (Kayne, 2011).

The most important benefit of PKC is its excellent security and ease of use. In addition, PKC is very useful in implementing secure algorithms since there is need to have an identical key for both parties (sender and the receiver). In this scenario, the data or information are kept private using a key, thus no one is able to access it and it will be encrypted with same public key at the receiver side. One more significant advantage of PKC is that, as compared to symmetric algorithms, public-key encryption structures are able to produce not only privacy but also verification and integrity (BlogPost, 2009), (Basu, 2010) and (Sotomayor, 2005).

The major issue or disadvantage of making use of public-key system is that they are not as speedy as symmetric algorithms data encryption. Additionally, the public key algorithms are very useful for data encryption however this, consequently, adds a calculation cost. Moreover, the amount of computations required in public key algorithms is normally more than the amount of calculations requires for other algorithms (BlogPost, 2009). The management of security using the technology based systems offers 24x7 security management without specific involvement of human beings.

Consequently, it reduces the extensive need for the human resource to effectively manage the process of information security management. On the other hand, in many cases such kind of security can be breached and information hacked for the sake of illegal attentions. Moreover, for this purpose there are a lot of viruses and hacking programs that can breach the security circles programmed for technology based security management (Biometrics, 2011). At the present, information security has become a major concern of almost all the organizations.

Additionally, new trends of information technology are evolving and causing higher needs for the enhanced security management and protection of the business and personal information. In this scenario, the main trend we are able to see from pervious few years is about the data breaches, which is about the increasing use of encryption technologies in an attempt to defend sensitive information. Another new trend that is seen nowadays is about the safety of mainframe environment that sustained development of security threats and augment government regulations and business standards.

Furthermore, hacking has become a profession. All of these factors require extensive business and corporate information security through more effective ways (Gupta, 2008), (Lemon, 2006) and (News Wire Publications, LLC, 2009). References Adleman, L., Rivest, R., Shamir, A., & Williamson, M. (2010). Public Key Cryptography (PKC) History . Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.livinginternet.com/i/is_crypt_pkc_inv.htm Basu, D. (2010, June 19). Public Key Encryption. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from Buzzle.

com: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/public-key-encryption.html Biometrics. (2011, March 07). Using biometric technology to solve security problems. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://biometricsforsale.co.cc/using-biometric-technology-to-solve-security-problems/ BlogPost. (2009, February 28). Public Key Cryptography. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from http://publickeycryptography.blogspot.com/2009/02/pros-and-cons-of-public-key-systems.html Gupta, R. (2008, December 24). Top 10 trends in Information Security for 2009.

Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.ciol.com/Security/Feature/Top-10-trends-in-Information-Security-for-2009/241208114170/0/ Kayne, R. (2011). What is Public Key Encryption? Retrieved March 13, 2011, from WiseGeek.com: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-public-key-encryption.htm Lemon, S. (2006, October 18). 10 security trends worth watching. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/101806-hitb-ten-security-trends-worth.html News Wire Publications, LLC. (2009, November 30).

Top 10 information security trends for 2010. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/top-10-information-security-trends-2010 Sotomayor, B. (2005). Public key cryptography. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://gdp.globus.org/gt4-tutorial/multiplehtml/ch09s03.html Tschabitscher, H. (2011). Public Key Cryptography . Retrieved March 15, 2011, from About.com: http://email.about.com/library/glossary/bldef_public_key_crypto.htm