Using Red Pike in National Health Service - Term Paper Example

Classified сiрhеr (Red Pike) Name Institution Introduction Cryptography system in the NHS refers to the communication system that is designed to enhance confidential and secure communication in the NHS. The cryptography system is needed in the NHS to enhance protection of the confidential information and protect clients’ records because of the diverse linkage of the patient’s records in the system. Red Pike is a categorized UK government’s encryption algorithm that has been proposed for usage in the NHS by the GCHG. It is a classified cipher that leads to improvement of security in the health system. This report seeks to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the classified cipher (Red Pike). The paper also looks at the theoretical safety of Red Pike today. It also justifies the cryptography system to be recommended to the NHS. The report comprises of the discussion, summary conclusions, and the recommended cryptography system. Sections Section 2: The strengths and weaknesses of using Red Pike in NHS Red Pike is a classified cipher that is used in organisarions such as the NHS. The cipher is associated with some strengths and drawbacks as discussed below Strengths of Red Pike in NHS Improved confidentiality; Red Pike is used for approval of the British Government’s contractors using software, which enhances confidentiality in the government’s communication system. It is possible to keep secret the client’s information and prevent its leakage to those parties who are not concerned. Goswami, Chakraborty, Bhunia, and Bhunia (2013) state that this improves the clients’ satisfaction because of being guaranteed that their information is kept with confidential and more secure. Security: Encryption facility used in the Red Pike makes it possible to secure the client’s records. The Red Pike is faster in detecting any interruption of the available data because it has a good memory that limits the unnecessary operations in the NHS system. The cipher provides some additional protection because access to some NHS data requires authentication, which has a focus on improved security. Thomas, Harrison, Zhao, and Chen (2012) identify that the cipher is capable of allowing the security of diverse and large networks; whereby NHS is engaging in electronic communications. There is the security of the data from different organizational structures. Improved risk management; The usage of Red Pike enhances the growth of efficiency associated with risk management because the encryption algorithm works towards the enhancement of safety and health. Personal health records are well kept, and the cipher enables quick retrieval of those records. Dealing with technical issue; The Red Pike classified cipher can address the technical issues that might be experienced in the NHS. Plateaux, Lacharme, Rosenberger, and Murty, (2013) argue that the cipher’s implementation takes some years, thus continued benefit in the NHS. Weaknesses of Red Pike in NHS The Red Pike is a very difficult classified cipher to implement because of the work force required and the particular skills that are necessary to apply. It requires an experienced personnel to run the cipher and to implement it in the NHS system, and this might cost the health care setting high amounts of money. In addition, encryption of the messages requires proper understanding of the particular cipher, which is limited by lack of adequate theoretical information (Massat, Sasieni, Parmar, & Duffy, 2014). The maximum time that a document can stay being protected by the Red Pike is very limited. This means that the document will not take long when being secure and the likelihood of it being at risk of insecurity is very high. There might also be traffic in relation to the communication protocols and the records kept by a specific NHS system. Williamson, Redman, Haynes, Barker, Jorm, Green, and Davies, (2014) assert that the cost associated with the running process of the cipher is high, and the staff has to be trained up in advance before the implementation of the cipher. Its implementation is conducted in different stages, which require requires being prioritized as per their criticality. Since the program is supposed to take several years, it means that maintenance cost would also be high. In addition, the effort to protect the data within those years might be associated with some technical problems (Neame, 2012). Section 3: The theoretical safety of Red Pike today Red Pike would not be a safe cipher today despite the limitation of its technical information because the classified cipher is not yet known to work efficiently. It is apparent that in the contemporary world, technology is changing things at high speed. With the new technology used in the implementation of the Red Pike, it would require more training for technicians to be possible to understand more about the cipher. Anand, Khemchandani, and Sharma, (2013) argue that the theoretical safety of Red Pike would be enhanced through comparison of the cipher with other related ciphers used in the NHS, thus lack of personal details on how to operate the cipher. Its performance is not yet understood because of lack of enough information to be followed when encrypting the information. Red Pike might take some time before the technicians fully understand how to conduct critical encryption practices using it. The computerization of the records in the NHS system do not require something that leads to delay and since the government organisations do not have efficient experience with the usage of the Red Pike there might result in some delays and increased costs. Williams, Spencer, Sanders, Lund, Whitley, Kaye, and Dixon, (2015) argue that for the NHS commission to decide to use the classified cipher, the executive would require engaging in a network with the other government bodies using the cipher to learn from their experiences and to gain skills from the technicians involved in running the cipher. The NHS system has been using different ciphers based on the security networks, so adoption the Red Pike would lead to confusion and yet there is no reliable information on how to implement the cipher. Fry, Rodgers, Morgan, Orford, and Fone, (2016) articulate that the properties and structures of the cipher are specific and enhance proper construction of the classified cipher. The functionality of the Red Pike classified cipher would only be secured if there would be the application of the block permutations for enhanced security. In addition, the key schedule required and the lines of the code used enable every key to operate quickly and conduct around 100 basic operations. Drennan, Halter, Joly, Gage, Grant, Gabe, andde Lusignan, (2015) identify that the communication system and the encryption facility connected to the classified cipher require proper reasoning for there to be a reduction of the likely technical issues. It is widely noticed that Red Pike would not have an effectual theoretical safety to the today’s NHS because of the increased rate of data transmission in the hospitals. To control the particular cipher is likely to be a problem because of lack of a reliable IT system since the current computer system is vulnerable to cyber threats and other malicious issues. Section 4: The cryptography system recommendable to the NHS In the case of the NHS asking for the introduction of a new cryptography system tomorrow, I would recommend Caesar Cipher. This cipher is very simple, and it is operated as a substitution cipher where there is a plain text. The encryption method involves replacement of a letter associated with secrecy and interchange it with a different letter. It is a very famous cipher, hence its application is widely known. Caesar Cipher applies a mixture of numbers, which are arranged in the alphabetic form and every letter in a document if directly changed to another letter, thus being used in sending of the decipher messages. The Caesar cipher uses the English language to send the secret messages, and there is a proper representation of the letters in the document. Application of this cipher in the NHS would lead to improved security of client’s records and enhance confidentiality because, in health care, there is a lot of secret information that is supposed to remain confidential. The cipher is also useful in the communication even in the complex schemes. From the fact that this cipher is used through online means, it is easier to access the required information. However, the Caesar cipher only offers minimal security towards the intended information. Its implementation is also associated with some mistakes such as the nonce reuse. It leads to random access of the required data and enables the user to predict the whole algorithm through the application of the minor pieces of the cipher text. The encoding is carried out in diverse ways that occur between the letters. Its installation is secure because of improved computer support and the available professionals. Conclusion Cryptography system in the NHS is identified as the communication system that is prepared to allow confidential and secure communication. The system works towards the enhancement of protection and confidentiality of information and records kept in the NHS. Red Pike is a classified UK government’s encryption algorithm that has been projected to be applied in the NHS by the GCHG. The classified cipher is likely to be associated with enhancement of security in the health system. In addition, the cipher improves confidentiality of the NHS records and improved communication. The cipher helps in dealing with technical issues and risk management. Implementation of Red Pike enables improvement of security in the NHS. However, its implementation is associated with difficulties because of the lack of technical knowledge on how to run it since there is inadequate information about the cipher. The Red Pike does not have efficient theoretical safety if used today in the NHS because of inadequate information. The best cipher that would be applied in the NHS would be Caesar cipher because it is simple, easy, and faster to run. References Goswami, R. S., Chakraborty, S. K., Bhunia, A., & Bhunia, C. T. (2013). Generation of automatic variable key under various approaches in cryptography system. Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series B, 94(4), 215-220. Massat, N. J., Sasieni, P. D., Parmar, D., & Duffy, S. W. (2014). An ongoing case–control study to evaluate the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. BMC cancer, 14(1), 1. Drennan, V. M., Halter, M., Joly, L., Gage, H., Grant, R. L., Gabe, J., ... & de Lusignan, S. (2015). Physician associates and GPs in primary care: a comparison. Br J Gen Pract, 65(634), e344-e350. Williamson, A., Redman, S., Haynes, A., Barker, D., Jorm, L., Green, S., ... & Davies, H. (2014). 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