Cryptography

Cryptography & Classical Ciphers
Introduction
Computer Security - generic name for the collection of tools designed to protect data and to prevent hackers.
?Network Security - measures to protect data during their transmission.
?Internet Security - measures to protect data during their transmission over a collection of interconnected networks
Any action that compromises the security of information owned by an organization”
?Information security is about how to prevent attacks, or failing that, to detect attacks on information-based systems
?Generic types of attacks
?passive
?active
“Passive attacks” attempt to learn or make use of information from the system but does not affect system resources.
?By eavesdropping on, or monitoring of, transmissions to:
? obtain message contents or
? monitor traffic flows
?Are difficult to detect because they do not involve any alteration of the data.
“Active attacks” attempt to alter system resources or affect their operation.
?Passive attacks are relatively easier to detect. Measures are available to prevent their success.
?On the contrary, it is quite difficult to prevent active attacks because of the wide variety of potential physical, software, and network vulnerabilities.
?Instead, the goal is to detect active attacks and to recover from any disruption or delays caused by them.

Security Service
? A processing or communication service that enhances the security of the data processing systems and the information transfer for an organization. The services are intended to defy security attacks, and they make use of one or more security mechanisms to serve the purpose

Security Services (X.800)
?Authentication
?Assurance that the communicating entity is the one claimed
?Access Control
?Prevention of the unauthorized use of a resource
?Data Confidentiality
?Protection of data from unauthorized disclosure
?Data Integrity
?Assurance that the contents of the data received are the same as sent by an authorized entity
?Non-Repudiation
?Protection against denial by one of the parties in a communication
Security Mechanisms
?Feature designed to detect, prevent, or recover from a security attack.
?There is no single mechanism to provide security of the data to be transmitted.
?However the element that underlies most of the security mechanisms is the use of cryptographic techniques.
?Cryptography is the art of secret writing, is the process of converting information, such as this slide, that can be read by most, into a secret code, that can only be read by those who are party to the secret.

Cryptography vs. Steganography
?Cryptography
?Overt writing: Evident that there is a secret message.
?Enemy can intercept the message
?Enemy can decrypt the message
?Steganography
?Covert writing: Its not evident that there is a secret message.
Change the LSB (least siginificant bit) of pixels in a random walk.
?Change the LSB of subsets of pixels (i.e. around edges).
?Increment/Decrement the pixel value instead of flipping the LSB.


Steganography- Example
?News Eight Weather:
Tonight increasing snow. Unexpected precipitation Smothers Eastern towns. Be extremely cautious and use snow-tires especially heading east. The highways are knowingly slippery. Highway evacuation is suspected. Police report emergency situations in downtown ending near Tuesday.
?First letter of each word yields:
Newt is upset because he thinks he is President
From WWII German spy (Kahn):
Apparently neutral’s protest is thoroughly discounted and ignored. Isman hard hit. Blockade issue affects pretext for embargo on by products, ejecting suet and vegetable Oils.
?Second letter of each word yields:
Pershing sails from NY June 1.
Kerchoff’s Principle
?The security of cryptosystem must not depend on keeping secret the crypto-algorithm. It must depend on keeping secret the key.
?Reasons:
?Details of the crypto-algorithm can be captured or reverse-engineered.
?Even if so, frequently changing the key maintains the security.
Class Quiz
?You have intercepted a message encrypted with a cipher of the form:-
C = aM+b
where M is the plaintext and C is the ciphertext (both integers modulo 26).
?The ciphertext starts with BBDJ.
?The plaintext starts with OOPS.
?Find the key.