Cybersecurity
Information Encryption
FUTURE
The Internet is a magical network that tightly weaves each of us together. It is this network that makes our lives so convenient. We can draw the knowledge we need from the Internet, truly realizing the saying, “You can know the world without leaving your home.” However, alongside the convenience brought by the Internet, there are also traps everywhere. If we are not prepared, it is easy to cause personal information leakage, making it necessary to learn about cybersecurity.
Among these, information encryption is the most fundamental yet complex aspect. It is very common in the transmission of network information. Any transmission of sensitive or critical information requires encryption. The commonly used encryption algorithms are generally divided into three categories: one-way hash encryption algorithms, symmetric encryption algorithms, and asymmetric encryption algorithms.
Encryption Algorithms
One-Way Hash Encryption Algorithms
One-way hash encryption algorithms are commonly used to extract data and verify data integrity.
Symmetric Encryption Algorithms
Symmetric encryption algorithms use a single key for encryption. During data transmission, the sender divides the original data into fixed-size blocks, encrypts each block using the key and encryption algorithm, and sends it to the receiver.
Asymmetric Encryption Algorithms
Asymmetric encryption algorithms use two different keys, a public key publickey and a private key privatekey, for encryption and decryption.
Encryption Algorithm
One-Way Hash Encryption Algorithms
One-way hash encryption algorithms are commonly used to extract data and verify data integrity. The sender encrypts the plaintext using a one-way encryption algorithm to generate a fixed-length ciphertext string, then transmits both the plaintext and ciphertext string to the receiver. Upon receiving the message, the receiver encrypts the plaintext using the same one-way encryption algorithm to obtain the encrypted ciphertext string. This is then compared with the ciphertext string sent by the sender. If the ciphertext strings before and after transmission are consistent, it indicates that the data was not corrupted during transmission; if they are inconsistent, it indicates that data was lost during transmission. It is also used for password encryption and storage.
One-way encryption algorithms can only be used for data encryption and cannot be decrypted. Their characteristics include fixed-length output and avalanche effect. Common one-way hash encryption algorithms include MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, etc.
Symmetric Encryption Algorithms
Symmetric encryption algorithms use a single key for encryption. During data transmission, the sender divides the original data into fixed-size blocks, encrypts each block using the key and encryption algorithm, and sends it to the receiver. Upon receiving the encrypted message, the receiver uses the key and decryption algorithm to decrypt and reconstruct the original data.Since the encryption and decryption algorithms are public, the secure transmission of the key becomes crucial.Typically, the key is transmitted to the other party through physical means or via a third-party platform. If there is a key leakage during this process, malicious individuals can intercept and decrypt the content of the encrypted transmission using the corresponding algorithm. Common symmetric encryption algorithms include DES, 3DES, and AES.
Asymmetric Encryption Algorithms
Asymmetric encryption algorithms use two different keys, a public key publickey and a private key privatekey, for encryption and decryption. The public key and private key form a pair; if data is encrypted with the public key, only the corresponding private key can decrypt it, and vice versa. Because encryption and decryption use two different keys, this algorithm is called an asymmetric encryption algorithm. Common asymmetric encryption algorithms include RSA, ECC, etc.
Encryption Algorithm
Image and text | Cybersecurity AssociationEditor | Cybersecurity AssociationInitial Review | Youth League New Media Department, Zheng Bo’er He ShiyingFinal Review | WeiZiHangFinal Approval | Cai Junfa