Semester 1, 2024: Cryptographic Techniques and Their Applications

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

ITC595
INFORMATION SECURITY ASSESSMENT ITEM
ASSESSMENT ITEM 5
RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT
Cryptographic Techniques

Contents
Introduction (Overview of the technology).....................................................................................3
Technologies and applications of Cryptography.............................................................................4
Challenges/problems in Cryptography............................................................................................6
Literature Review............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

Introduction (Overview of the technology)
The data of the computers are travelling from one place to another over the internet, and this
declines in the protection and safety of the data. The data which is transferred is moving through
the network and this can be keep confidential and the security can be provided to the information
by using the cryptographic techniques. The data must be kept safe because the people with the
bad intention can take the wrong use of the confidential data or they can also modify it either for
their own benefit or enjoyment. The technology which is used in the present report is the
Cryptography, which can keep our data safe by transforming the data and by making it safer
from the various unauthorized persons (Jana, et.al. 2018, May). The cryptography technology is
based on the security; privacy and the confidentiality of the data by having the secret codes or by
encrypt the data and allow only the authorized user to access that file or database in the most
powerful ways. The data can be protected from many sources such as:
Network Security - The data can be protected while transferring of the information over the
network.
Computer Security - The data can be keep secure and protected by the various computer
devices as the hackers hack or steal the data from various computer devices.
Internet security - This is to protect the data from various sources over the internet and secure
the data while transmission through the interconnected networks.
The cryptography technology is the art and science of transforming any message into the other
form which is not understandable by any person except the authorized ones who are having the
key to access it and after transforming it again change it to its original form when the access is
permitted to the selected users. The text which is transformed is known as the intelligible
message, the cipher text is known as transformed message, and the cipher is defined as an
algorithm which is used to transform the intelligible message into unintelligible message (Jana,
et.al. 2018, May). In this technology, the key is the one which is known only to the authorized
ones such as the sender and the receiver of the information. Encipher is the process of encrypting

the information into the cipher text and then a key is provided to the receiver o that they can be
able to decrypt it. The Decipher is the process of converting the cipher text into its original form.
The code in this technology is defined as an algorithm for transforming the intelligible message
into the unintelligible text by using the code book.
Technologies and applications of Cryptography
There are various techniques which are used in cryptography are outlined below in the report -
 Mono-Alphabetic Cipher -This Cipher is also known as shift cipher. This is the method
which is used to convert the plain text into the cipher text or the cipher text into the
original text. Caesar’s shift is said as the mono-alphabetic cipher. In this techniques the
cipher text includes the move of the one character and decrypt that character in uppercase
and in plain text that character is decrypt in the lowercase without any space, thus by this
no person can be able to understand the information.
Figure 1 : Mono-Alphabetic Cipher Poly Alphabetic Cipher - In this techniques are letters substitutions are not fixed as in
mono alphabetic the letter substitutions are fixed. For example if A is denoted with P in
the encrypt text then this will be fixed but in poly alphabetic the A is not fixed every time
that this will depict P only. There are two types of poly alphabetic cipher which are
outlined below -

o Play fair Cipher - In this technique the text is shifted and converted by using the
5*5 matrix in the sequential manner. In the matrix the 25 alphabets are going to
put instead of 26 and then all the alphabets re place sequentially. Ex. HACKER is
the plain text then this can written as
H A C K E
R B D F G
I L M N O
P O S T U
V W X Y Z
This will going to be written as HA CK ER BD FGz
o Vignere Cipher - In this technique the Caesar shift is modified in the Vignere
Cipher. As we all known that the plain text consists of the lowercase and the
cipher text is having uppercase, thus we will going to define this by 27*27 matrix
the rows will be of the uppercase and the column will be of lowercase. Each of
the row will display the subsequent cipher text. For every letter the first character
will moved one place farther than the earlier one (Ogiela & Ogiela, 2016, March).
In some of the places the letters are going to replace by numbers such as A is
going to denote by 1 and C will be 3.
Applications of cryptography
There are various applications of cryptography which are outlined as below in the report -
 Secure Communications - The most important use of cryptography is the encrypt of the
communication between the user and the other system. This is the application which we
all mostly use and this is very common for all the humans. This is used for
communicating between the server and the client. For example - A email server or email
client. Most of the companies and industries are taking use of it just to make their
communication secure.
 End-to-End encryption - In this, Email is the one where the message is not encrypted as
this is not in use mostly. When any of the information passes or move from server to
server and then server to client then this information is encrypted. The cryptography is

the technology which provides the security to the email message in which only the sender
and the receiver will be able to read the message.
 Storing Data - This is known that many of the users are storing their data on the
computer system and many of the organisation s are having the important credentials
which they store in their database and wants the security for that data so that no
unauthorized persons can be able to access it. This is essential that each of the operating
system of the user or the organisations must be encrypt so that the security can be
provided to the store data.
 Storing password - The hashing method is used to fix the length of a string which is
mainly used to store the password. If any of the passwords is stored in plaintext then the
person who is having that system can be able to read and access the password. Using the
cryptography techniques for storing the password is the best solution to this problem. If
any of the person who is having the access to the system then they must have the key to
decrypt the password which is encrypted (Daras & Rassias, 2015). The system must
match the password with the hash value then allow to login. This will help in storing and
secure the password so that no unauthorized person can be able to access the private
things of any individual.
Challenges/problems in Cryptography
The various problems faced with the implementation or use of cryptography are mentioned
below -
 Usability - There are many techniques of cryptography which are used for the security
and privacy but there are many humans who even don’t know the technique to use the
cryptography as this is not user friendly and cannot be use by all the persons and that’s
the reason that this is then useless. There are various software applications which help in
making the messages use simple but then also the encryption is having the long method
to use it.
 Key management - This is very difficult to manage and keep your key safe. This is said
that if the individual keeps their key safe then everything will be fine. This is mainly
related to the management of the password issue. The question arises in this issue that

how the developer can make the crypto keys easy for the users and how the keys can be
replace easily and how the keys can be made very complex for the hackers to hack and
attack to the system for hacking the password.
 Trust - This is also an issue that from which the individual is going to connect their
system or through which network they are going to transfer their email or messages must
be trustworthy. Thus the developer must ensure this thing for the user to whom to trust
and how they can choose a trustworthy network or system for the security of their data
and information.
Literature Review
This literature review is going to discuss on the topic of cryptography along with its various sub-
points.
Goal and Importance of Cryptography
Cryptography is very important and essential for the humans as well for many industries as this
provides the security, privacy and confidentiality of the private information and data. This allows
us to have a confidence in the electronic transactions such as encryption and decryption (Kumar,
2015). This transactions are used to protect the data such as digital signatures are replaced by the
hand signature, account numbers, public key encryption, transactions cost, passwords, credit card
authorizations, etc. This is very important to keep the data secret and confidential. This is very
beneficial and leads to have a better career in the defence and the specialist in then computer.
The main goal of cryptography is to secure and keep private the data of the individuals.
Concept of cryptography algorithms
The algorithms of the cryptography are mainly using the protection and security of the private
information in the domain of IT. Many of the tools of cryptographic are implemented for
securing the data. There are mainly two types of algorithm which are used in the cryptography
and these are defined as below -
1. Symmetric key algorithms - These are the keys which are used for the cryptography and
this uses the similar key for the process of encryption of the plain text and decryption of

the cipher text (Chen, et.al. 2018). The key are to be shared secretly by more than two
parties so that the information can be kept privately and maintain the privacy and security
all around. These algorithms are reachable for the general public. Some of the symmetric
key algorithms are 3DES, AES and the DES.
Figure 2 : Symmetric Key Algorithm
1. Asymmetric key algorithms - These algorithms are not as similar as the symmetric
algorithms. This is also said as the public key cryptography because this uses both the
public and private keys for the process of encryption and decryption. The keys in this are
paired together but that keys are not identical (Patil, et.al. 2016). The key which can be
shared by each individual is known as public key. On the other hand, the key which is to
be kept secret is said as the private key.
Figure 3 : Asymmetric key Algorithm

Malware which affect the security of the system
There are various malware activities which can affect the security and privacy of the computer
system and these are defined as below -
1. Viruses - This is the most destructive malware which can hack and remove the data from
the computer system and can also send span or share the information to the illegal
persons. To protect from this malware the developer must install the antivirus software to
keep their data safe or can use the cryptography techniques to maintain and kept he data
safe.
2. Spyware - This is the malware which send your personal information to the one who is
interested in your data without your consent. This can also recognized as Trojan viruses.
3. Adware - This is the malware which depicts some of the advertisements when the user is
searching something online and from this the malware attacks and enter into the
computer system.
Security cryptography policies
The cryptography policies can be used to set out that where the encryption must be used. This
provides the protection of the important information and communication (Preneel &
Vercauteren, 2018). The policies are defined below -
1. Cryptography and compliance - The policies are to be developed just to provide the
protection to the sensitive data and information by ensuring the regulatory and prescribed
requirements.
2. Managing electronic keys - The management of the key is must just to control and
manage the encryption and decryption of the digital signatures and obedience with both
contractual and legal requirements.
3. Receiving and using the digital signatures - The information of the organisation are
mainly communicated by using the electronic device and this can be authenticated by the
use of digital signatures.

Conclusion
From the above mentioned report, this has been concluded that the security and privacy of the
information is must needed by many of the organisation and the individual so the cryptography
techniques are going to help in providing the security and confidentiality of the data and
information. The report has discussed about many things such as concept of the cryptography
along with challenges and issues faced while implementing this technology. The security
policies, malware activities, description about the cryptography algorithms, goals and importance
of the cryptography are to be discussed by the author. Thus, all this states that the concept of
cryptography is very important and beneficial for the future of the individuals.

References
Preneel, B., & Vercauteren, F. (Eds.). (2018). Applied Cryptography and Network Security: 16th
International Conference, ACNS 2018, Leuven, Belgium, July 2-4, 2018, Proceedings (Vol.
10892). Springer.
Patil, P., Narayankar, P., Narayan, D. G., & Meena, S. M. (2016). A comprehensive evaluation
of cryptographic algorithms: DES, 3DES, AES, RSA and Blowfish. Procedia Computer
Science, 78, 617-624.
Chen, J., Zhang, Y., Qi, L., Fu, C., & Xu, L. (2018). Exploiting chaos-based compressed sensing
and cryptographic algorithm for image encryption and compression. Optics & Laser
Technology, 99, 238-248.
Kumar, S. N. (2015). Review on network security and cryptography. International Transaction
of Electrical and Computer Engineers System, 3(1), 1-11.
Daras, N. J., & Rassias, M. T. (Eds.). (2015). Computation, cryptography, and network
security (pp. 253-287). Springer.
Ogiela, L., & Ogiela, M. R. (2016, March). Bio-inspired cryptographic techniques in information
management applications. In 2016 IEEE 30th International Conference on Advanced
Information Networking and Applications (AINA) (pp. 1059-1063). IEEE.
Jana, B., Chakraborty, M., Mandal, T., & Kule, M. (2018, May). An Overview on Security
Issues in Modern Cryptographic Techniques. In Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on
Internet of Things and Connected Technologies (ICIoTCT) (pp. 26-27).