Practical Applications of Cryptography
By Sai Karthik Gangisetty on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Ugh… I have to send an important e-mail regarding the financial stats of the current year to my boss today. Fine, then I will type the e-mail and send it to him. Oops… is my network is secured or not? These types of questions generally arise due to security reasons for confidential data. Here is where Cryptography comes into the picture.
Some Common Applications:
1. Hard Drive Encryption
The data which is present in the hard disk is encrypted using some disk encryption algorithms. PGP (Pretty Good Protocol) can also be used to encrypt files. In this case, PGP uses the user’s private key along with a user-supplied password to encrypt the file using IDEA(International Data Encryption Algorithm). The same password and key are used to unlock the file.
2. Cloud Computing Cryptography
The security in cloud computing is vulnerable to numerous issues like legal compliance, process, and physical security aspects, privacy and confidentiality, data integrity, access control and identity management, software platform and finally the virtualization infrastructure within the cloud. So using encryption techniques for security in cloud computing is important. Some Encryption Techniques are Identity Based Encryption, Fully Homomorphic Encryption, Attribute-based Encryption, etc.
3. Cryptography in Blockchain
The uses of cryptography in blockchain comprise digital signatures and hashing. Cryptocurrency payments require a digital signature, in the form of a private key. When someone enters their private key against a payment transaction, this encrypts the transaction. When the payment reaches its destination, the recipient can decrypt the transaction using the public key of the sender.
Blockchains hash each transaction before bundling them together into blocks. Hash pointers link each block to its predecessor, by holding a hash of the data in the previous block. Because each block links to its predecessor, data in the blockchain are immutable. The hashing function means that a change in any transaction will produce an entirely different hash, which will alter the hashes of all subsequent blocks.
4. Cryptography for Monetary Transactions
Secure communication plays an essential part in electronic transactions. Several methods have been designed and implemented to provide this. Some of these are SSL (Secure Socket Layer), HTTPS (Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol), IPSec (IP Security), etc.
Several protocols and methods have been designed and tested for implementing secure monetary transactions over the Internet, especially using credit cards. Some of these are:
- iKP
- Millicent
- NetCheque
- SEPP
- SET
- SIPS
- STT
5. Cryptography in Short-range Communication (Ex. Walkie-Talkie)
For a radio to be “secure” it must have encryption, and much military application must be secure. The military traditionally contracts for their own custom equipment, as they have their own frequency allocation. The standard which is used in walkie-talkie is known as Project25(short form P25). Project25 compliant portables supporting encrypted talk around support the same level of security as military radios, but anyone can purchase (with channel license). One of the key benefits of P25 Digital Radio over analog radio is the ability to securely encrypt calls without impacting the coverage area. AES which is used in P25 is a more secure form of encryption, however maintaining the security of that channel is more complicated.
I have listed down only a few of them but there can be many applications of cryptography and because of the growing demand for information security, cryptography is for sure, becomes a way of life :)
