Encryption and Privacy

Encryption

"I can crack any password in the world"

What is Encryption?

Encryption is the method by which information is converted into secret code that hides the information's true meaning.

Encryption is commonly used to protect data in transit and data at rest.

Every time someone uses an ATM or buys something online with a smartphone, encryption is used to protect the information being relayed.

Encryption in Everyday Life
  • End-to-end encryption (E2EE)
  • HTTPS
  • Electronic Money

Ceasar's Cipher

  • Its the earliest know cipher
  • Its simple and easy to encrypt data.
How does it work?

Each letter in the message is shifted by a certain number of steps.

Encryption End

Key : 5

Plain Text: HELLO

MJQQT

Decryption End

Key?

-5

Disadvantage

But the problem is that for any message with 26 tries, you can crack the code.

So we can shift each letter by different amounts.

10 bit key it'll take humans 10 billion possible solutions

But it'll only take a few minutes or seconds for a computer to crack this

Nowadays we use 256 bit encryption

Is it uncrackable?

Even if we have hundred thousand super computers and each trying a million billion keys every second, it'll take trillions and trillions of year to crack it.

"The Question is not HOW, the question is WHEN "
-Dark (Netflix series)

"I can crack any password in the world"

Its not that these algorithms are hard to crack but that it'll take a long time.

Quantum Computers and Encryption

Modern Encryption is based on the process of multiplication, which is easy to perform in one direction but much harder to do in reverse

592*829 = 491,597

But it is hard to start with the number 491,597 and work out which two prime numbers must be multiplied to produce it.

computer scientists consider it practically impossible for a classical computer to factor numbers that are longer than 2048 bits

a quantum computer could break 2048-bit RSA encryption in 8 hours

Quantum cryptography

  • quantum mechanical properties of particles to protect data

  • any attempt to access the encoded data will change the data

Challenges to Encryption

  • Brute Force Attacks
  • Backdoors

Backdoors

A backdoor is a typically covert method of bypassing normal authentication or encryption in a computer, product, embedded device, or its embodiment.

They are basically a way in which people can access the data bypassing the encryption.

National Security Agency (NSA) weakened the DES algorithm, and following revelations from former NSA analyst and contractor Edward Snowden, many believe the NSA has attempted to subvert other cryptography standards and weaken encryption products.

Privacy

Privacy is a fundamental right, essential to autonomy and the protection of human dignity, serving as the foundation upon which many other human rights are built.

Privacy enables us to create barriers and manage boundaries to protect ourselves from unwarranted interference in our lives, which allows us to negotiate who we are and how we want to interact with the world around us.

People don't feel like their pricacy is violated because they don't know that they're being violated.

Most companies nowadays are based on data collection

Data collection is done often by breach of privacy

Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, Amazon, etc

Cases of Privacy concern

More than 49 million Instagram influencers, celebrities, and brands have had their private contact information exposed after an India-based social media marketing company left the data unprotected on an Amazon Web Services database.

Fornite had a security breach that enabled hackers to access personal info of players including credit card details.

Facebook stored passwords in plain text

  • Reddit : r/privacy, r/thehatedone
  • Youtube : thehatedone
  • Snowden Movie

Cameras make sound while taking pictures. why?

Thanks