A Detailed Report: Comparing 3DES and RSA Encryption Techniques

This report provides an overview of two prominent encryption algorithms: Triple DES (3DES) and RSA. The introduction defines encryption and its role in converting secured data into ciphertext using computational techniques. The main body delves into the security levels offered by both algorithms. 3DES, a symmetric-key block cipher, enhances the Data Encryption Standard by applying the DES algorithm three times, increasing key size to 168 bits. RSA, a public-key encryption standard, or asymmetric algorithm, employs two keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption, based on the difficulty of prime factorization. The report highlights the strengths of each algorithm, such as 3DES's multiple encryption steps and RSA's key length, making them resistant to unauthorized access. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of cryptographic knowledge and the effort required to break the private keys. References include books and journals that support the analysis.

Encryption Algorithm

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Level of security provided by Triple DES and RSA..................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Encryption Algorithm is commonly used to convert the secured data into Cipher text by
applying some computation techniques. This can be referred as a process by which scrambled
information can be transformed into unscrambled words by adopting various mathematical steps.
This meaningless data can be again brought back to original form using key to unlock those data
conversions. This report will cover 3 DES (Data Encryption Standard) and RSA (Rivest, Adi
Shamir and Leonard Adleman) method to secure the confidential data into cipher format. The
study is completely based on cryptography techniques which provides various methods to
convert data into non readable form.
MAIN BODY
Level of security provided by Triple DES and RSA
Information security of large confidential data is the huge matter of concern in this
modern world so to secure this data cryptography has provided various methods to convert the
readable data into unreadable format. Cipher and decipher are the two terms which are used to
lock or unlock the encrypted data. Considering these factors, various algorithms are designed to
convert scrambled words into unscrambled form (Patil and et.al., 2016). Multiple algorithmic
steps are involved to transfer the information security. Triple Data Encryption Standard and RSA
are two popularly used techniques among all. This encryption methods are described below:
Triple data encryption standard
3 DES technique was mainly designed to provide powerful data security by applying
DES cipher algorithm three times in each data block. It is a symmetric-key block cipher which
adopts simple method of increasing the key size of DES in order to protect confidential data from
information hackers (Khan and Tuteja, 2015). Total key length of triple DES is 168 bits in which
three 56 bits of keys are involved. This cryptographic method uses a “key bundle” which
contains 3 DES keys namely, k1, k2, k3. These are 56 bits long keys which uses a computational
formula to convert plain text into cipher text such as cipher text= Ek(DK(Ek(Plaintext)). In
this formula, DES will contain 3 keys for encrypting the plain text into unscramble words where
k1 is used to encrypt the text while k2 is used to again decrypt that cipher text and finally third
key is applied to encrypt that combined data.
In this way, reverse formula need to be applied in case of decryption which is as follows:
1

Plaintext=Dk(Ek(Dk(ciphertext))). Here each 64 bits one block of data is encrypted using
three keys.
RSA
It can be considered as a public key encryption standard or Asymmetric algorithm which
is commonly used in PGP and GPG programs to secure the important information in such a way
that hackers do not able to break its security (Bhanot and Hans, 2015). This is basically works on
two different keys for conversion of plaintext into ciphertext and vice versa. In this technique
one key plays the role of private key while other is kept as public key which is used to decrypt
the data provided on server. Public key is known to everyone but private key is a one which is
kept secret to server for unlocking the security of data. RSA keys contains 1024 or 2048 bits of
length which can be referred as hardly breakable passcode. These keys can be generated by
applying prime factorisation method. Both the keys are created using the combination of large
prime number. This generally contains four step procedure which are as follows:
Step-1 Assume p and q large positive integers such that n=pq. Where n can be expressed in bits
and it can be referred as a module for both the keys (Encryption Algorithm, 2018.).
Step-2 Compute λ(n) =lcm(λ(p), λ(q)) = lcm (p− 1,q− 1) such that the value can be kept private
(Sivakumar, Balakumar and Pandeeswaran, 2018).
Step-3 assume any integer 'e' such that 1 < e < λ(n) and these numbers need to be co-prime.
Step-4 Now determine another integer that is’d’ it can be modular multiplicative inverse of 'e'.
Then apply a cryptography method using formula which is as follows: d⋅e ≡ 1 (mod λ(n)). Here
key can be released as public key exponent and d will be taken as a private key used by server to
unlock the information.
Triple DES is a suitable technique because it encrypts the data three times and this
method cannot easily allow unauthorised user to access data. Therefore, it is more secured way
for protecting the confidential data from cyberattacks.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above content that 3 DES and RSA are more secured
methods despite of failure. Hackers have to apply different decryption passwords which takes
long time to access confidential information. The report has concluded that these encryption
2

algorithms have to be performed with an expertise knowledge in cryptography so it requires a lot
of efforts to break private key.
3

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhanot, R. and Hans, R., 2015. A review and comparative analysis of various encryption
algorithms. International Journal of Security and Its Applications. 9(4). pp.289-306.
Khan, S. S. and Tuteja, R. R., 2015. Security in cloud computing using cryptographic
algorithms. International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and
Communication Engineering. 3(1). pp.148-155.
Patil, P. and et.al., 2016. A comprehensive evaluation of cryptographic algorithms: DES, 3DES,
AES, RSA and Blowfish. Procedia Computer Science. 78. pp.617-624.
Sivakumar, R., Balakumar, B. and Pandeeswaran, V. A., 2018. A Study of Encryption
Algorithms (DES, 3DES and AES) for Information Security.
Online
Encryption Algorithm. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1778/encryption-algorithm>.
4