Cryptology Over the years, computer security has become very important to companies and now has become an important career field to be employed in. As we progress with technology, the stakes for security have become more and more important. Hackers create new ways each day to access computer systems in order to steal data for their own uses. This data theft has caused many methods to be created in order to thwart the hackers from gaining access to your computer systems. One of these methods is known as Cryptology. This is a method in which data is converted from a readable format to an unreadable format before a user transmits the data across a network. Once the data is received by the recipient it is then converted back to a readable format. This process is known as decryption. Cryptology is a field of study that is used to research protocols and algorithms used to encrypt and decrypt data information. It also is the process of analyzing the different encryption and decryption techniques needed to protect data securely. The algorithms used in this study are diverse and each has their different strengths and weaknesses. This is why the study of cryptology is important as it allows for the analysis of the different techniques in order to determine the best uses for the different corporate needs. Another aspect of cryptology is authentication. This process not only deals with encryption and decryption, it also uses different security algorithms to authenticate users. This is done through the confirmation of digital identities before giving access to encrypted data.
Encryption
The protection of data has become ever more important due to the privacy and secrecy involved for corporate designs. Financial institutions and defense contractors have had to increase the security of their data in order to protect the information from hackers. Information has become a very important and valuable commodity and attackers will try to use their skills in order to steal this information for their own uses and gains. In order to protect this data, corporations use encryption to convert their data into an unreadable format in order to thwart the attackers. Most corporations have now employed methods to encrypt all data being sent outside of their own networks while also employing encryption techniques on the hard drives of all user computers in order to protect any information that physically leaves the building. This keeps the information from being accessed by an attacker or even a thief that may steal a laptop from a vehicle from being able to access the data on a system and using it for their own purposes. Encryption and decryption work hand in hand together, you cannot have one without the other and still be able to read data. Current uses of encryption and decryption for electronic information systems are easily explained using online banking as the example. When a user decides to purchase a product online from a web retailer, their credit card information has to be confirmed with information on both the front and back of the physical card. This information is then confirmed by the retailer with the credit card company by sending encrypted information to them and then receiving confirmation back from them through this same encryption. This encryption protects the users from attackers that maybe listening for packet flow to the individual credit card companies from gaining information that is usable for private gain. Currently, most encryption is using a standard of 128 bit but as time progresses this will increase in order to further protect data from creative attackers.
Symmetric and Asymmetric Symmetric cryptology is an encryption technique in which the sender and receiver use the same encryption security key to send and access data. This key allows the sender to encrypt the data before sending it across a network and then this key allows the receiver to decrypt the data in order