Cryptography has a few goals set in play to make it useful and something to be considered.

The goals cryptography has in mind are Confidentiality or privacy, Data integrity, Authentication, and Non Repudiation. Keeping information secret from all an only allow those who is authorized to see it. This also offers protection while any data is being transmitted from passive attacks such as interception. Cryptography also ensures that any data has not been altered by an outside source or by corruption of unknown means. Knowing when a file or data has been tampered with is a must in case of data manipulation should occur. Authenticating access to the data for parties that should have access is a part of cryptography, this also means giving access when access is needed to the parties that are authorized to handle or view the data. Non-Repudiation by cryptography prevents data from being denied when being sent from sender to receiver, this allows for the sender to know it was actually sent to the receiver and that the receiver knows that it was actually sent by the sender. Cryptography has different methods in which it can be used, these are Hash function cryptography, Symmetric cryptography (single key), and Asymmetric cryptography (public key). A hash functions is a variation of the message authentication code. It is the conversion method that will take an input and return it to a fixed sized string which is commonly known as the hash string. The hash value is a number that is computed from a base input number using a hash algorithm. To get the Hash value you would have to take the input number for example 18,258 and multiply that by the Hashing algorithm which for example will be 168. So 18,258 x 168 = 3,067,344

Symmetric cryptography or single key cryptography is when data is encrypted and decrypted by using a single key, hence the name single key cryptography. In single key cryptography only the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt data that has been transmitted. Only those holding this key can decrypt the message leaving outsiders who manage to get ahold of the data a mess of cipher text that is not understandable. Asymmetric cryptography is also called Public key cryptography, which uses two keys instead of just one. By using a pair of keys this resolves some security issues that symmetric cryptography had with lost or stolen keys. Asymmetric cryptography uses one key to encrypt the message and the other key is used to decrypt the message and both keys are needed to complete this process. The first key is called the public key and is used for encryption. Hence, this method of encryption is also called public key encryption. The second key is the secret or private key and is used for decryption. The private key is not distributable. Ciphers are when a text form is written in a manner that only deciphering will allow for the human mind to make the text readable and easy to understand. Two examples of this are Caesar cipher and Rot15 (Rotate 15) ciphers. With Caesar cipher is when you take a letter and replace it with a fixed letter down the alphabet, the same fixed movement has to be done with each letter found in the ciphered message. Example: Plain: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Cipher: DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC

Similar to this method is Rot15 or Rotate 15, this cipher is accomplished by rotating each letter in the ciphered message by replacing it with the letter 15 letters down the alphabet, this can also be done either by going up the alphabet or going backwards, but it must be 15 letters in either manner. Example: Original text: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ROT15 text: pqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmno Cryptography can be used to protect a network from attacks by utilizing many different methods of encryption to keep data safe. By using Asymmetric or Hash algorithms to encrypt E-mails you keep any crucial data that is sent via these emails safe from prying eyes. Even if this email should happen to be intercepted, the attacker doing so would have no means of cracking the cipher text of the message. By knowing how to manage your data you can prevent this data by being corrupted or tampered and being prepared for this situation if it should occur happen to know who it was tampered with. By using cryptography you can keep the data of your company safe and secure with out worry of outside access and only giving access to those who need it and properly assigning authentication saving the company many assets.

References

Microsoft.com (2011) Security Functions of Cryptography retrieved August 31 2012 from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc961634.aspx Wiley.com (n.d.) Cryptography basics retrieved august 31 2012 from: http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/94/07645487/0764548794.pdf