Technology of Information Security - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages As technological advancement keeps coming, several reliable cryptography methods are continuing to emerge. Data encryption has a number of advantages and disadvantages. Its disadvantages come mainly because the technology is sometimes not used as required. Cryptography is a very powerful and important technology that can be used to protect information sent to emails and all financial based transactions. Information needs to be shared in order to make various decisions that govern various activities. For this reason, information should be as confidential as possible for sustainability and accuracy of its use. Data encryption techniques offer a solution for the protection of information against all third parties. The techniques are basically needed for information to be encrypted whereby one party shares its information with a recipient. On the other hand, enemies can hack into people’s accounts and plot violence against a country with knowledge of cryptography. Some governments want to restrict its use for fear of criminals and spies using the technology for their good and to the disadvantage of the nation. How Encryption Technique works Encryption is a process whereby messages are converted into a form that has been created that without decrypting or deciphering, they cannot be read. Encryption uses a systematic procedure or algorithm which converts messages or data to their original form. The cryptologists are engaged in competition that will never end in a bid to create better and stronger techniques that will be used by parties to protect their data. Although other methods of deciphering exist, the recent systems are more powerful to an extent that they are almost unbreakable even with the use of powerful computers. The new cryptosystems use mathematical formulae that are very complex and which effectively resist breakthroughs. The Use of PGB There are several popular encryption systems used in the world today. They include the data encryption standard (DES), pretty good privacy (PGB), and the Rivest Shamir, Adleman (ARS) system. The DES system uses a single key and it has been developed in the USA. The RSA on the other hand uses two keys and was generally made just for the public use and named after the people who developed it (Frazier2004). Pretty Good Privacy (PGB) helps internet users to keep all their communications private. It is a two key system which enables a computer to send encrypted messages using a chosen private key that only the sender knows. All the computers that will receive the email message are given a copy of the private key which later establishes the message sender. When using the public key method, the one who sends the message and the receiver are both able to authenticate each other and also protect the message which is usually secret. Advantages of Encryption Techniques Encryption techniques make information unreadable to people who are not supposed to access the information. This is very important to many organizations because no third party can access information without being allowed to do so by the sender. The information cannot be accessed even through the administrator’s server leave alone other computers. This improves loyalty and secrecy in the organization or any governments in the world today. Data encryption is regarded as a national issue by governments because it majorly ...Download file to see next pagesRead More