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 Cryptography is a technique for securing communications in the

presence of third parties, referred to as adversaries. It is the practice
of transforming or scrambling information so that its meaning
cannot be understood by unauthorised parties. It is a necessary
feature to add protection, although it can present challenges for
lower-power devices or those requiring fast response times due to
the time and energy algorithms require. Cryptographic techniques
are used for securing digital communication and data, providing
benefits like confidentiality, integrity, and authentication.

 Plaintext is the original readable text or message that is fed into

the algorithm as an input.

 Cleartext is often used interchangeably with plaintext to denote

the unencrypted information.

 Ciphertext is the unreadable output of the algorithm which

conceals the plaintext context. An example is sending an email that
is encrypted from plaintext to ciphertext to prevent unauthorised
access.

 Steganography is a technique for concealing data within other

non-secret public data, ensuring that the very existence of the
hidden data is concealed. It typically involves hiding data within files
such as images, audio, or video. This is usually achieved by dividing
the data and hiding it in the unused portion of a file.

 Metadata is information that describes other data. It can

sometimes inadvertently contain insecure or sensitive information. A
common scheme is to hide data in a file header that contains or
describes the file. Metadata can describe the content or structure of
the actual file. Examples include properties of a Word document
such as location, size, creation/modification/access dates, author,
last save time, word count, character count, and line count. For
pictures, EXIF information can reveal details like when a photo was
taken, the camera type, megapixels, and even geographical
coordinates. Embedding a secret message within an image file using
steganography or metadata in a photo revealing the location where
it was taken are examples.

 Benefits of Cryptography: Cryptographic techniques provide

advantages for securing digital communication and data. These
include:
 o Confidentiality: Ensuring that information is not accessed by
unauthorised users. Encrypting sensitive data transmitted
over the internet to protect personal information from theft is
an example.

o Integrity: Assuring that the data has not been altered in any
unauthorised manner. Hash algorithms are primarily used for
comparison purposes to verify integrity.

o Authentication: Verifying the identity of users and devices.

Digital signatures can help verify the sender's identity.

 Cipher (Stream and Block): Cryptographic algorithms can be

categorised based on their operations or principles.

o Stream Cipher: Encrypts the individual characters of a

plaintext message one at a time. It takes more time than block
cipher but is considered more secure. An example is using a
stream cipher to encrypt real-time communication data like
secure voice calls.

o Block Cipher: Encrypts fixed-size blocks of data using a

deterministic algorithm. It takes a fixed length and converts it.
Block cipher is much faster than stream cipher.

 Cryptographic Algorithms (Symmetric and Asymmetric):

Apart from hashing, there are two known algorithms to make
encryption more secure: symmetric and asymmetric.

o Symmetric cryptographic algorithm: Uses a single key

for both encrypting and decrypting information. It's also called
private key cryptography because the key is kept private
between the sender and receiver. If the key is compromised,
the information would be compromised. It can provide strong
encryption if the key is kept secure. Examples of strong
symmetric algorithms are Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES), Blowfish, or Twofish. In symmetric encryption, one key
converts plaintext to ciphertext, and the same key is used by
the recipient to decrypt the information. Distributing and
maintaining a secure key among multiple users is a primary
weakness.

o Asymmetric cryptographic algorithm: Employs a pair of

keys, one public and one private, for encryption and
decryption. This is why it is called public key cryptography. It
uses two mathematically related keys. The public key is
available to everyone and can be freely distributed. The
 private key is known only to the individual to whom it belongs.
An example is using RSA for asymmetric encryption for
emails. In asymmetric encryption, if Alice wants to send a
message to Bob, she would use her private key and Bob's
public key to encrypt the message. When Bob receives the
message, he would use his private key and Alice's public key
to decrypt it. No key information, other than the public keys, is
shared online.

 Hash algorithms (Hashing): Convert data of any size into a fixed-

length hash value, which acts as a digital fingerprint. This fingerprint
is also called a digest or a message digest. It's primarily used for
comparison purposes. Hashing is intended to be one-way, meaning
the digest cannot be reversed to reveal the original data. A hashing
algorithm is considered secure if it produces a fixed length, is
unique, original, and secure. A hash cannot be reversed to
determine the original plaintext. Examples include the Secure Hash
Algorithm (SHA) family (widely used for security and data integrity)
and MD5 (an older hash function, considered valuable but less
secure than SHA). Hashing is helpful for finding the integrity of files.
If you collect hashes of files and folders and later compare them,
changes in the hash indicate that the file has been modified.

 Digital Signature: A technique to secure digital documents and

files. Digital signatures provide a means to verify the authenticity of
a digital message, document, or software. Digital signature
algorithms can verify the sender, prevent the sender from disowning
the message (non-repudiation), and prove the integrity of the
message. Signing a contract digitally to ensure non-repudiation is an
example, as only the person aware of their digital signatures and
private keys can sign it.

 File and File System Cryptography: Protects files on computers

and networks from unauthorised access.

o File-level encryption: Encrypting or decrypting files one by

one using encryption software.

o Third-party software tools like GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG),

Script, Folder Lock, or VeraCrypt can be used for encryption
and decryption.

o Microsoft Windows uses the Encrypting File System (EFS) to

protect files on systems.

 Disk Encryption: Protects data on the hard drive.

 o Full-disk encryption (FDE): Also known as volume-level
encryption and database-level encryption. It protects all data
on the hard drive. Microsoft's BitLocker drive encryption
software, included in professional and enterprise versions of
Windows, encrypts the entire disk, including the Windows
registry. It is crucial to securely save the keys, as losing them
can make data unrecoverable.

o Volume-level encryption: Protects a volume, which is a

section of a drive accessible by the user, potentially with a
different file system.

o Database-level encryption: Secures data within databases.

o Self-encrypting drives (SEDs): Drives with integrated

encryption mechanisms. They ensure that all data written to
them is encrypted. The drive and host device perform
authentication during power-up, and if authentication fails, the
drive can deny access or even delete encryption keys, making
data permanently unreadable.

 Hardware Security Module (HSM): A removable external

cryptographic device that manages encryption keys and processes
within secure hardware. It includes an onboard key generator and
storage facility and performs accelerated symmetric and
asymmetric encryption algorithms.

 Trusted Platform Module (TPM): An international standard for

crypto processors that provides cryptographic services. A TPM
includes a random number generator, full support for asymmetric
encryption, and can generate public and private keys. On Apple and
Android devices, it is also called a secure enclave. TPM 2.0 was
required for installing Windows 11.

 Limitations of Cryptography: Inherent limitations exist in

cryptographic systems. These can include Key Management
difficulties and resource constraints. Cryptographic algorithms
require time and energy, resulting in a trade-off between resources
and security.

 Attacks on Cryptography: Potential attacks can compromise

cryptographic systems. Two common types of cryptographic attacks
are algorithm attacks, also called Collision attacks. Methods
attackers use include known ciphertext attacks and downgrade
attacks. Statistical tools can attempt to find patterns in ciphertext to
reveal plaintext or keys. In a downgrade attack, an attacker forces
the system to abandon a higher security mode for an older, less
secure one.

o Collision attack: An attempt to find two input strings of a

hash function that produce the exact same hash output. When
two files have the same digest, this is known as a collision.

o Birthday attack: Based on the Birthday Paradox. It refers to

the probability of finding two hashes that are the same, similar
to the probability of two people in a room sharing a birthday.