Cryptography is technique of securing information and communications

through use of codes so that only those person for whom the
information is intended can understand it and process it. Thus
preventing unauthorized access to information. The prefix “crypt”
means “hidden” and suffix graphy means “writing”.

In Cryptography the techniques which are use to protect information are

obtained from mathematical concepts and a set of rule based
calculations known as algorithms to convert messages in ways that make
it hard to decode it. These algorithms are used for cryptographic key
generation, digital signing, verification to protect data privacy, web
browsing on internet and to protect confidential transactions such as
credit card and debit card transactions.

Techniques used For Cryptography:

In today’s age of computers cryptography is often associated with the
process where an ordinary plain text is converted to cipher text which is
the text made such that intended receiver of the text can only decode it
and hence this process is known as encryption. The process of
conversion of cipher text to plain text this is known as decryption.

Features Of Cryptography are as follows:

Confidentiality:
Information can only be accessed by the person for whom it is intended
and no other person except him can access it.
Integrity:
Information cannot be modified in storage or transition between sender
and intended receiver without any addition to information being
detected.
Non-repudiation:
The creator/sender of information cannot deny his intention to send
information at later stage.
Authentication:
The identities of sender and receiver are confirmed. As well as
destination/origin of information is confirmed.
Types Of Cryptography:
In general there are three types Of cryptography:

Symmetric Key Cryptography:

It is an encryption system where the sender and receiver of message use
a single common key to encrypt and decrypt messages. Symmetric Key
Systems are faster and simpler but the problem is that sender and
receiver have to somehow exchange key in a secure manner. The most
popular symmetric key cryptography system is Data Encryption
System(DES).
Hash Functions:
There is no usage of any key in this algorithm. A hash value with fixed
length is calculated as per the plain text which makes it impossible for
contents of plain text to be recovered. Many operating systems use hash
functions to encrypt passwords.
Asymmetric Key Cryptography:
Under this system a pair of keys is used to encrypt and decrypt
information. A public key is used for encryption and a private key is used
for decryption. Public key and Private Key are different. Even if the
public key is known by everyone the intended receiver can only decode
it because he alone knows the private key.

Attacks
There are two types of attacks that are related to security namely
passive and active attacks. In an active attack, an attacker tries to modify
the content of the messages. In a passive attack, an attacker observes
the messages and copies them.

Passive Attacks
The first type of attack is passive attack. A passive attack can monitor,
observe or build use of the system’s data for sure functions. However, it
doesn’t have any impact on the system resources, and also, the data can
stay unchanged. The victim is difficult to note passive attacks as this sort
of attack is conducted in secret. Passive attack aims to achieve data or
scan open ports and vulnerabilities of the network.

An eavesdropping attack is taken into account as a kind of passive attack.

An eavesdropping attack is to steal data transmitted among two devices
that area unit connected to the net. Traffic analysis is enclosed in
eavesdropping. An eavesdropping attack happens once the attackers
insert a software package within the network path to capture future
study network traffic. The attackers have to be compelled to get into the
network path between the end point and the UC system to capture the
network traffic. If their area unit additional network methods and also
the network methods area unit longer, it’ll be more comfortable for the
offender to insert a software package within the network path.

The release of messages is additionally another kind of passive attack.

The attackers install a package to the device by using virus or malware to
watch the device’s activities like a conversation of messages, emails, or
any transferred files that contain personal information and knowledge.
The attackers will use the data to compromise the device or network.

Some other attacks that have emerged thanks to the exponential

interconnection of insecure devices like IoT infrastructure include those
that square measure protocol-specific, likewise as wireless device
networks-based

For example, in associate IoT-based, mostly sensible-home systems, the

communication protocol used is also RPL (Routing protocol for low-
power and lossy networks). This protocol is employed thanks to its
compatibility with resource-constrained IoT devices that cannot use
ancient protocols.

Active Attacks

An active attack could be a network exploit during which the attackers

will modify or alter the content and impact the system resource. It’ll
cause damages to the victims. The attackers can perform passive attacks
to gather info before they begin playacting a vigorous attack. The
attackers attempt to disrupt and forced the lock of the system. The
victims can get informed concerning the active attack. This sort of attack
can threaten their integrity and accessibility. A vigorous attack is tougher
to perform compared to a passive attack.

Denial-of-Service attacks (DoS) are one in each of the samples of active

attack. A denial-of-Service attack happens once the attackers take action
to close up a tool or network. This may cause the first user to be unable
to access the actual device or network. The attackers can flood the
target device or network with traffic till it’s not responding or flaming.
The services that are affected are emails, websites, or on-line banking
accounts. Dos attacks may be performed merely from any location.
As mentioned on top of, DoS attack includes flooding or flaming the
device and network. Buffer overflow attack is one in every of the
common DoS attacks. This sort of flooding attack sends a lot and a lot of
traffic to the network that exceeds the limit that a buffer will handle.
Then, it’ll lead to a flaming of the system. What is more, ICMP flood,
called ping flood, is additionally a kind of flooding attack. The assaulter
can send spoofed packets and flood them with ICMP echo requests. The
network is forced to reply to all or any claims. This may cause the device
not to be accessible to traditional traffic.

Moreover, SYN flood is additionally a kind of flooding attack. The

attackers can keep generating SYN packets to all or any of the ports of
the server. Faux informatics addresses are usually used. The server that
is unaware of the attack can then reply to the SYN-ACK packets. The
server can fail to access the shoppers and therefore crash. Applied math
approaches may be prone to develop attack detection techniques for
attacks like SYN flood. One such technique is projected by authors
wherever they need projecting SYN flood attack detection theme
supported Bayes calculator for unintended mobile networks.

Trojan horse attacks are another example of network attack, the most
ordinary sort of that is backdoor trojan. A backdoor trojan permits the
attackers that don’t have the authority to realize access to the pc system,
network, or code application. As an example, the attackers may hide
some malware in an exceedingly explicit link. Once the users click the
link, a backdoor is going to be downloaded within the device. Then, the
attackers can have basic access to the device. Apart from that, a rootkit
is additionally another example of a trojan attack. A rootkit is usually
won’t to get hidden privileged access to a system. It’ll give root access to
the attackers. The attackers can manage the system; however, the users
won’t get informed of it. They will amend any settings of the pc, access
any files or photos, and monitor the users’ activities. A number of the
favored rootkit examples are Lane Davis and Steven Dake, NTRootKit,
philosopher Zeus, Stuxnet, and Flame. Flame a malware that’s
established within the year 2012 that is intended to attack Windows OS.
It will perform some options like recording audio, screenshotting, and
observance network traffic.
Phishing attack

Phishing attacks are the practice of sending fraudulent communications

that appear to come from a reputable source. It is usually done through
email. The goal is to steal sensitive data like credit card and login
information, or to install malware on the victim’s machine. Phishing is a
common type of cyber attack that everyone should learn about in order
to protect themselves.

How does phishing work?

Phishing starts with a fraudulent email or other communication that is
designed to lure a victim. The message is made to look as though it
comes from a trusted sender. If it fools the victim, he or she is coaxed
into providing confidential information, often on a scam website.
Sometimes malware is also downloaded onto the target’s computer.

What are the dangers of phishing attacks?

Sometimes attackers are satisfied with getting a victim’s credit card
information or other personal data for financial gain. Other times,
phishing emails are sent to obtain employee login information or other
details for use in an advanced attack against a specific company.
Cybercrime attacks such as advanced persistent threats (APTs) and
ransomware often start with phishing.

How do I protect against phishing attacks?

User education
One way to protect your organization from phishing is user education.
Education should involve all employees. High-level executives are often
a target. Teach them how to recognize a phishing email and what to do
when they receive one. Simulation exercises are also key for assessing
how your employees react to a staged phishing attack.

Security technology
No single cybersecurity technology can prevent phishing attacks. Instead,
organizations must take a layered approach to reduce the number of
attacks and lessen their impact when they do occur. Network security
technologies that should be implemented include email and web
security, malware protection, user behavior monitoring, and access
control.
Conventional encryption

Conventional encryption is a cryptographic system that uses the same

key used by the sender to encrypt the message and by the receiver to
decrypt the message. It was the only type of encryption in use prior to
the development of public-key encryption.

It is still much preferred of the two types of encryption systems due to

its simplicity. It is a relatively fast process since it uses a single key for
both encryption and decryption In this encryption model, the sender
encrypts plaintext using the receiver’s secret key, which can be later
used by the receiver to decrypt the ciphertext. Below is a figure that
illustrates this concept.

Suppose A wants to send a message to B, that message is called

plaintext. Now, to avoid hackers reading plaintext, the plaintext is
encrypted using an algorithm and a secret key (at 1). This encrypted
plaintext is called ciphertext. Using the same secret key and encryption
algorithm run in reverse(at 2), B can get plaintext of A, and thus the
message is read and security is maintained.

The idea that uses in this technique is very old and that’s why this model
is called conventional encryption.

Conventional encryption has mainly 5 ingredients :

Plain text –
It is the original data that is given to the algorithm as an input.
Encryption algorithm –
This encryption algorithm performs various transformations on plain text
to convert it into ciphertext.

Secret key –
The secret key is also an input to the algorithm. The encryption
algorithm will produce different outputs based on the keys used at that
time.

Ciphertext –
It contains encrypted information because it contains a form of original
plaintext that is unreadable by a human or computer without proper
cipher to decrypt it. It is output from the algorithm.

Decryption algorithm –
This is used to run encryption algorithms in reverse. Ciphertext and
Secret key is input here and it produces plain text as output.

Requirements for secure use of conventional encryption :

We need a strong encryption algorithm.

The sender and Receiver must have obtained copies of the secret key in
a secure fashion and must keep the key secure.
Advantages of Conventional Encryption :

Simple –
This type of encryption is easy to carry out.

Uses fewer computer resources –

Conventional encryption does not require a lot of computer resources
when compared to public-key encryption.

Fast –
Conventional encryption is much faster than asymmetric key encryption.
Disadvantages of Conventional Encryption Model:

Origin and authenticity of the message cannot be guaranteed, since both

sender and receiver use the same key, messages cannot be verified to
have come from a particular user.
It isn’t much secured when compared to public-key encryption.
If the receiver lost the key, he/she cant decrypt the message and thus
making the whole process useless.
This scheme does not scale well to a large number of users because both
the sender and the receiver have to agree on a secret key before
transmission.

CIA Model

The CIA triad in Cryptography

When talking about network security, the CIA triad is one of the most
important models which is designed to guide policies for information
security within an organization.

CIA stands for :

Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability

These are the objectives that should be kept in mind while securing a network.

Confidentiality :

Confidentiality means that only authorized individuals/systems can view

sensitive or classified information. The data being sent over the network
should not be accessed by unauthorized individuals. The attacker may
try to capture the data using different tools available on the Internet and
gain access to your information. A primary way to avoid this is to use
encryption techniques to safeguard your data so that even if the
attacker gains access to your data, he/she will not be able to decrypt it.
Encryption standards include AES(Advanced Encryption Standard) and
DES (Data Encryption Standard). Another way to protect your data is
through a VPN tunnel. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and helps
the data to move securely over the network

Integrity :
The next thing to talk about is integrity. Well, the idea here is to make
sure that data has not been modified. Corruption of data is a failure to
maintain data integrity. To check if our data has been modified or not,
we make use of a hash function.
We have two common types: SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) and
MD5(Message Direct 5). Now MD5 is a 128-bit hash and SHA is a 160-bit
hash if we’re using SHA-1. There are also other SHA methods that we
could use like SHA-0, SHA-2, SHA-3.

Let’s assume Host ‘A’ wants to send data to Host ‘B’ maintaining
integrity. A hash function will run over the data and produce an arbitrary
hash value H1 which is then attached to the data. When Host ‘B’
receives the packet, it runs the same hash function over the data which
gives a hash value H2. Now, if H1 = H2, this means that the data’s
integrity has been maintained and the contents were not modified.
Availability :

This means that the network should be readily available to its users. This
applies to systems and to data. To ensure availability, the network
administrator should maintain hardware, make regular upgrades, have a
plan for fail-over, and prevent bottlenecks in a network. Attacks such as
DoS or DDoS may render a network unavailable as the resources of the
network get exhausted. The impact may be significant to the companies
and users who rely on the network as a business tool. Thus, proper
measures should be taken to prevent such attacks.
Types of Security Mechanism

Network Security is field in computer technology that deals with

ensuring security of computer network infrastructure. As the network is
very necessary for sharing of information whether it is at hardware level
such as printer, scanner, or at software level. Therefore security
mechanism can also be termed as is set of processes that deal with
recovery from security attack. Various mechanisms are designed to
recover from these specific attacks at various protocol layers.

Types of Security Mechanism are :

Encipherment :
This security mechanism deals with hiding and covering of data which
helps data to become confidential. It is achieved by applying
mathematical calculations or algorithms which reconstruct information
into not readable form. It is achieved by two famous techniques named
Cryptography and Encipherment. Level of data encryption is dependent
on the algorithm used for encipherment.
Access Control :
This mechanism is used to stop unattended access to data which you are
sending. It can be achieved by various techniques such as applying
passwords, using firewall, or just by adding PIN to data.
Notarization :
This security mechanism involves use of trusted third party in
communication. It acts as mediator between sender and receiver so that
if any chance of conflict is reduced. This mediator keeps record of
requests made by sender to receiver for later denied.
Data Integrity :
This security mechanism is used by appending value to data to which is
created by data itself. It is similar to sending packet of information
known to both sending and receiving parties and checked before and
after data is received. When this packet or data which is appended is
checked and is the same while sending and receiving data integrity is
maintained.
Authentication exchange :
This security mechanism deals with identity to be known in
communication. This is achieved at the TCP/IP layer where two-way
handshaking mechanism is used to ensure data is sent or not
Bit stuffing :
This security mechanism is used to add some extra bits into data which is
being transmitted. It helps data to be checked at the receiving end and is
achieved by Even parity or Odd Parity.
Digital Signature :
This security mechanism is achieved by adding digital data that is not
visible to eyes. It is form of electronic signature which is added by sender
which is checked by receiver electronically. This mechanism is used to
preserve data which is not more confidential but sender’s identity is to
be notified.