Faculty of Computer Studies

Course Code: T215B

Course Title: Communication and Information Technologies
– Part B

Midterm Make up Examination

2014-2015/Second

DD- Month-2015

Number of Exam Pages: (5) Time Allowed: 2 hours

(including this cover sheet(

Instructions:

 Total Marks: 90
 Total Number of Questions: 3
 Marks Distribution: Part 1: 9 marks
Part 2: 36 Marks
Part 3: 45 Marks
 Be sure you write your name and ID on the External Answer booklet.
 External materials are NOT allowed
 Calculator is ALLOWED)

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Part 1: Multiple Choice Questions: (1x9 = 9 marks)
Answer all the following Multiple Choice Questions.

1. An evaluation of _________ requires us to consider whether the system will function as

expected (and as claimed) and are there effective safeguards in place to monitor its
performance.

A) Convenience B) Identity

C) Reliability D) Acceptability

2. Privacy as ________: we might want to keep certain information about ourselves, or

certain things that we do, secret from everyone else or selected others

A) Anonymity B) Confidentiality

C) Identity D) All of the above

3. The branch of science concerned with the concealment of information

A) Cryptanalysis B) Cryptography

C) Cryptology D) Encryption

4. A plaintext of X-language that consists of 29 letters is encrypted using Caesar cipher, if

that ciphertext is decrypted using key of 20, what is the encryption key?

A) 5 B) 7

C) 6 D) None of the above

5. Figure below shows a simple transposition cipher, It uses a wooden pole (or staff) known
as a “scytale”, a strip of parchment or leather is wound around the pole so that it forms a
sleeve. The message is written in rows along the length of the sleeve, what is the key of
this transposition cipher?

A) The diameter of scytale B) The length of the wooden pole

C) The length of the leather strip. D) all of the above.

6. One of the following is correct in regards to transposition cipher.

A) The identity of the letters change but their positions remains the same

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B) A transposition cipher is strong when there are long blocks of identical characters within
the string

C) Given text with normal language characteristics, a transposition cipher can be strong
against a brute force attack.

D) All of the above

7. To combat Brute force attack we need:

A) a weak association with the linguistic patterns in the plaintext

B) small key space

C) Complex encryption algorithm

D) A and C

8. One of the following is a correct regarding Electronic Codebook (ECB)

A) Each block uses different key based on the previous block output.

B) The encryption of each block is dependent from the other blocks.

C) ECB is not practical when data involves long repetitive strings of 1s and 0s, such as a
picture data

D) Two similar blocks of plaintext will result in different blocks of ciphertext

9. The prime factorisation of the number 72 is:

A) 2x2x2x9 B) 2x2x2x3x3

C) 2x2x2x2x3 D) 2x2x2x2x3

Part 2: Essay Questions: (6x6 = 36 marks)

Answer ALL the following questions

1. Fingerprinting is considered as a physiological biometric, list three advantages and two

disadvantages of Fingerprinting.

Advantages:

- The ridge pattern on a fingertip stays the same throughout a person‟s life (though it
may become less pronounced), unless the fingertip is damaged.
- It is also highly distinctive – even identical twins have somewhat different
fingerprints.
- A fingerprint is easy to capture

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 (1 mark for each point)

Disadvantages:

- An estimated 5% of people are not able to provide a fingerprint that is usable for
security purposes due to injury or worn-down ridges on the fingertip.
- It is possible to lift a fingerprint off a surface and use it to produce a fake „finger‟.
(1.5 marks for each point)

2. A) What are Quantum cryptography systems designed for and why? (3 marks)
- Quantum cryptography systems are designed for key generation rather than for the
direct encryption of data (1mark)
- Computers are becoming ever faster and more powerful  Encryption methods that
were once thought to be secure can become vulnerable because of faster processing
speeds  if some day someone discovered a fast and simple method for factoring
large primes, one possible solution is quantum cryptography (2 marks)

B) What is a photon and what are the possible polarities of photon? ( 3 marks)
- Photon is the smallest possible measurement of light, and can be characterised by its
polarity of spin. (2 marks)
- The polarity of a photon can be in any direction: north/south, east/west, or any angle
between (1 mark)
3. A) Define Asymmetric key system? (1 mark)
Asymmetric key system is the system that uses two keys, one for encryption and one for
decryption. Both keys are mathematically related to each other but in a very complex way.

B) Explain how an asymmetric system is used for key exchange? (3 marks)

- One of the parties, for instance, Alice generates the session key
- Alice uses the second party‟s public key, for instance, Bob‟s public key is to encrypt
the session key
- Alice sends the encrypted session key to Bob
- Bob decrypts the encrypted session key using his own private key
- Both parties (Alice and Bob) share the same symmetric session key
- The session key is used for encrypting their messages.
(0.5 mark for each correct point)

C) In practice, it is rare to use an asymmetric key system for the encryption of message
data. Usually a short symmetric key, known as sessions key is used by both parties to
encrypt their secret messages. What are the Advantages and disadvantages of a Session
Key? (2 marks)

Advantages:

- A session key is short.

- A session key imposes a much lower processing overhead than public key systems.
(0.5 mark for each correct point)
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Disadvantages

- Low resistance to attack

- Session keys usually stay in service for a relatively short time (sometimes only a
single transaction) before being discarded
(0.5 mark for each correct point)

4. Define the following: numbers factorization, prime factorisation, prime number, and
compound number?
- With the exception of the number 1, all numbers can be decomposed into two or more
numbers that multiply together to make the number. The process of decomposing a
number in this way is called factorisation.
- A factorisation is said to be a “prime factorisation” when all the factors are prime
numbers.
- Prime numbers are characterized by the uniqueness of their factorization. A Prime
number has only two factors: 1 and itself
- A compound number has always more than two factors: 1, itself, and other factor(s).
(1.5 marks for each definition)

5. Explain how the collision resistant properties of a hash function provide assurances about
the integrity of the message?
- Alice could attach the hash to her message {M,H(M)}
- Encrypt her message and the digest both together using Bob‟s publick key
:{M,H(M)}KB
- On receipt, Bob uses his private key to decrypt the bound message and hash :
{{M, H(M)}KB}K‟B = M,H(M)
- He would then recalculate the hash.
o If the recalculated hash matches the received hash, the message has not been
altered.
 This is only true if the hash function is “Collision resistant”.

(1.5 marks for each point)

6. A) What are the Biometric security system main advantages and disadvantages? (4 marks)
Advantages:
- People automatically have their identity token with them.
- A biometric cannot be forgotten or left behind.
Biometric security system main drawback:
- Many biometrics are not secret and so can be imitated.
- It is very difficult – if not impossible – for someone to change their biometric when it
has been compromised.
(1 mark for each point)

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 B) A biometric security system is a security system that is based in some way on
biometrics which can be divided into two types, list and explain them? (2 marks)
- Physiological biometrics: do not normally change through a person‟s life – at least,
not after that person has reached adulthood.
- Behavioural biometrics: Several behavioural characteristics also do not normally
change, They only change if someone makes a sustained effort to change them.
(1 mark for each point)

Part 3: Problems: (45 marks)

Answer ALL the following questions

1. Brute force attack is used to break a columnar transposition cipher by trying every
combination of the key. Based on that answer the following: (15 marks)
A) If a key is supposed to be a seven letters word “jungle”, how many different attempts
by brute force attack to break the cipher text provided that each letter in the word
“jungle” appears only once, show your answer in details? (5 marks)
The first letter can appear in any of the 7 positions; the second in any of the 6
remaining positions; the third in any of the 5 remaining positions; and so on.
This gives a total possible number of combinations of
6! = 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 720
B) a fast computer was used to break the previous ciphertext, the speed of processor was
2.5 MIPS (million instructions per second), if each attempt needs 260 instructions,
what is the time needed to break the ciphertext in part A. (consider the worst case, i.e.
the last attempt is the successful one), express your answer in seconds and
milliseconds? (5 marks)
Total number of instructions = 720 x 260 = 187200 instructions (2 marks)
Time = 187200 / (2.5x10^6) = 0.07488 s (2 marks)
Time = 74.88 ms (1 mark)
C) If 200 computers as the same specifications as the computer in part B are grouped
together to break the previous ciphertext, calculate the time needed for that assuming
the same number of instruction for each attempt (260). Express your answer in
seconds and microsonds? (5 marks)
Total number of instructions = 720 x 260 = 187200 instructions (2 marks)

Time = 187200 / (200 x 2.5x10^6) = 0.0003744 s (2 marks)

Time = 374.4 microseconds. (1 mark)

2. The sender and recipient agreed to use the keyword “column” and its anagram
“MNCOUL” to decrypt the following ciphertext using columnar transposition cipher:
“LEPEPOIVWHLOLAEIGNUSSSOHOUESHSTTLDONSTHRWOXXONSE”. What is
the original plaintext? (18 marks)

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 M N C O U L
L E P E P O
I V W H L O
L A E I G N
U S S S O H
O U E S H S
T T L D O N
S T H R W O
X X O N S E
(1 mark for each correct row (1x8 = 8 marks))
C O L U M N
p e o p l e
w h o l i v
e i n g l a
s s h o u s
e s s h o u
l d n o t t
h r o w s t
o n e s x x
(1 mark for each correct row (1x8 = 8 marks))

The resulting plaintext is “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones”
(2 marks)

3. A manager of bank decided to use Caesar Cipher with digraph coding to encrypt the
plaintext “four”, assuming a key of 612, what is the ciphertext? Show your work in details
and write the final ciphertext as one message. (12 marks)
Use the following table to help you find the code of letters:

c ≡ p + K mod 676
c ≡ p + 612 mod 676 (0.5 mark)

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„fo‟ encryption:

Pfo = pf x 26 + po = (5 x 26) + 14 = 144 (1 mark)

Cfo ≡ pfo + K mod 676 ≡ 144 + 612 mod 676 ≡ 756 mode 676 ≡ 80 mode 676 (2marks)
80/26 = 3 + 2/26 (1 mark)
P1 = 3 equivalent to letter „D‟ (0.5 mark)
P2 = 2 equivalent to letter „C‟ (0.5 mark)
The ciphertext digraph of „fo‟ is „DC‟ (0.5 mark)

„ur‟ encryption:

Pur = pu x 26 + pr = (20 x 26) + 17 = 520 + 17 = 537

Cur ≡ pur + K mod 676 ≡ 537 + 612 mod 676 ≡ 1149 mode 676 ≡ 473 mode 676
473/26 = 18 + 5/26
P1 = 18 equivalent to letter „S‟
P2 = 5 equivalent to letter „F‟
The ciphertext digraph of „ce‟ is „SF‟

So „four is encrypted as „DCSF‟ (0.5 mark)

End of MTA Make Up Exam

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