Tales from the encrypt
Summary Description RSA, SSL, PGP? It might as well be a secret code! 5 Minute Guides tackles digital encryption.
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Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore

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Editorial InformationArticle Location http://www.newswire.com.au/0005/5mg11.htm
Article Topic 5 Minute Guides, Encryption
Story Order
Story Group 000514
Post Date 11/05/2000 09:03 AM Status Posted Entered by Simon Vandore on 10/05/2000 01:23 PM


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Introduction


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How does digital encryption work?
Encryption is basically the use of a secret code to disguise something, such as a document. The simplest example would be A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 and so on. Complicated codes were often used during World War II to deliver battle plans.
Old-fashioned 'symmetric' encryption uses the same key code to encode and decode a message. However, symmetric encryption has one problem: you need to manually tranfer the code to the receiver. During the War, encryption codes were susceptible to interception en-route.
Modern 'asymmetric' or 'public key' encryption carried out on computers solves this by using a publicly available key code to encrypt the message, and a private key to decrypt it. Anyone can find out your public key and send you an encrypted item, but the private key is only ever held by you, so the message can only be decrypted by you. The mechanism for sharing public keys is known as a public key infrastructure.
Digital encryption can be used to disguise more than just a document -- it can be applied to pictures, sound, or even all data passing through a network.
OK, now tell me about the acronyms. RSA? SSL? PGP?
The RSA algorithm, the most commonly used form of public key encryption today, was invented in 1978 by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman. RSA Security owns the algorithm and licenses it to software companies like Netscape, Microsoft and Lotus.
Most online shopping sites on today's Internet use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for credit card transactions, a means of encrypting Web communication invented by Netscape. SSL uses RSA and pre-existing 'digital certificates' to validate the transaction. A certificate is another encrypted file issued by a certification authority (CA) or 'trusted third party' containing details about the identity of its owner.
PGP (standing for Pretty Good Privacy) is a public key encryption program written by Phil Zimmerman in the US. It brought RSA to the masses, and the spooks to Zimmerman's door.
Why is encryption controversial?
Governments and defence forces around the world see strong encryption as a threat, as it enables their enemies to reliably evade detection and hide information. In some countries, the export of strong encryption technologies is strictly controlled as they are considered 'weapons grade'. Phil Zimmerman was initially pursued by the US authorities for making his PGP software available online. Some products are exported with low-grade encryption, but made available locally using stronger encryption.
Some people are really into this stuff. The study of encryption is called cryptography, and on the Internet there is a virtual community of people, known as 'cypherpunks', interested in the social and political impacts of modern cryptography. They often don't see eye-to-eye with their respective governments. It's a matter of personal privacy versus perceptions of national security.
Why do some things have 56-bit key encryption, and others 128-bit or even 2,048-bit?
Each bit added to a key makes it an order of magnitude more secure. But encryption and decryption use more processing power where larger keys are involved, so a balance must be struck.
The only way to crack open something encoded with a good public key security system is a 'brute force' attack. Large amounts of computing power must be applied over many hours, days or even months to try all possible combinations of keys and crack the code. Brute force is often used to crack commonly used 48-bit or 56-bit keys, but higher order of magnitude keys are considered reasonably safe . . . unless you believe the conspiracy theorists who say the CIA has supercomputers that can crack most security. Generate your 1,024-bit PGP key now!


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RSA, SSL, PGP? It might as well be a secret code! 5 Minute Guides tackles digital encryption.

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5 Minute Guide: Tales from the encrypt

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