What Encryptions Algorithms Are the Most Commonly Used by the Public to Prevent Pc Hacking?
Vicki Wilhelm
4 December 2, 2015
Tim Wedge
DFS 1109
What encryptions algorithms are the most commonly used by the public to prevent PC hacking?
While security is an afterthought for many PC users, it’s a major priority for businesses of any size. Encryption is an interesting piece of technology that works by scrambling data so it is unreadable by unintended parties. Once encrypted, the message literally becomes a jumbled mess of random characters. Whether it is in transit like our party email or resting on a hard drive, encryption works to keep prying eyes out of your business, even if they happen to somehow gain access to the network or system.
This technology comes in many forms, with key size and strength generally being the biggest differences in one variety from the next. The most common encryptions algorithms used by the public to prevent PC hacking are TripleDES, RSA, Blowfish, Twofish, and AES (Cowen, pg. 101).
Triple DES was designed to replace the original Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm, which hackers eventually learned to defeat with relative ease. This was the recommended standard and the most widely used symmetric algorithm in the industry back when it was used by the military. It uses three individual keys with 56 bits each, the total key length adds up to 168 bits but experts would argue that 112-bits in key strength is more like it. Despite slowly being phased out it still manages to make a dependable hardware encryption solution for financial services and other industries.
RSA is a public-key encryption algorithm and the standard for encrypting data sent over the internet. It is considered an asymmetric algorithm due to its use of a pair of key: a public key, which is used to encrypt messages and a private key to decrypt it. Without the keys it is a huge batch of mumbo jumbo that takes attackers quite a bit of time and processing power to break.
Blowfish is yet another algorithm designed to replace DES. It is a cipher splits messages into blocks of 64 bits and encrypts them individually. It is known for both its tremendous speed and overall effectiveness, vendors have taken full advantage of its free availability in the public domain. It is found in software categories ranging from e-commerce platforms for securing payments to password management tools where it used to protect passwords. It’s definitely one of the more flexible encryption methods available
In Twofish, the keys used in this algorithm may be up to 256 bits in length and as a symmetric technique, only one key is needed. It is regarded as one of the fastest of its kind. This encryption algorithm is freely available to anyone who wants to use it. It is usually found in bundled encryption programs such as PhotoEncrypt, GPG, and the popular open source software TrueCrypt.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the algorithm trusted as the standard by the U.S. Government and numerous organizations. It is extremely efficient in 128-bit form, AES also uses keys of 192 and 256 bits for heavy duty encryption purposes. AES is largely considered impervious to all attacks, which attempts to decipher messages using all possible combinations in the 128, 192, or 256-bit cipher.
II. Future of Encryption
Cyber attacks are constantly evolving, security specialists must stay busy in the lab concocting new schemes to keep them at bay. Expert observers are hopeful that a new method called Honey Encryption will deter hackers by serving up fake data for every incorrect guess of the key code. This unique approach not only slows attackers down