ENHANCED SECURITY USING ENCRYPTION AND DECRYPTION

ABSTRACT – Data sharing and networking, in today’s date, form the basis of computer science
and technology. In today’s competitive world, data security is more important than data sharing
or generation as data is the most valuable resource one can possess. Be it public sector units or
multinational companies, every organization has increased the need for data security. Data
integrity, authentication, security, and confidentiality is enhancing day by day to facilitate
stronger security. To enable data security, various cryptography techniques are used. This paper
primarily focuses on reviewing the existing encryption methods and surveying their algorithms.

INTRODUCTION – Let us suppose you have thought of some idea and want to patent it. You
will design its documentation and all the necessary stuff. While transferring it over the network,
someone steals your idea and patents it before you and you suffer a huge loss. This is due to data
insecurity and theft. Had you secured your file using some encryption standards, this won’t
happen. Therefore all data transmissions need to be very secure and confidential. Data
encryption is a very efficient and effective standard to establish security over the network.
Cryptography is a branch that will end at infinity and give rise to endless discoveries and
development in computer science. Cryptography previously meant a process of converting useful
information into a nonreadable format using transposition, replacement and shift techniques. Post
world war I and advancement in computer science, the encryption standards have become more
and more complex and tougher to crack the security key.

BASIC TERMS –

1. ENCRYPTION
Encryption is said to be the process of converting simple text or say plain text or any file
in its original form to a form which is not readable or understandable by a random person
generally referred as cipher text or encrypted form. Ciphertext has no meaning and is of
no use unless the key to read it is known.
E.g.: Plain Text – Hello user! Your code is 7XX4yr.
Encrypted Text – Ydfs%n^&aas8)$qwLV9fsdds441_+/>
2. DECRYPTION
Decryption is said to be the process of converting ciphertext or encrypted code or files
into its recognizable form such that it conveys some meaningful information i.e. back to
plain text. Decryption process generally requires an authentic key to be completed to
ensure data security.
E.g.: Encrypted Text – Ydfs%n^&aas8)$qwLV9fsdds441_+/>
 Suppose key to decrypt the same is HighFive. When the user enters HighFive as a
key or in general terms password, plain text is displayed.
Plain Text – Hello user! Your code is 7XX4yr.
3. KEY
What kind of encryption algorithm will be used for the process completely relies on the
type of key we choose. Key can be referred as a password or say a combination of
alphabets and numbers that play the most vital role in cryptography. It is used both at the
time of encryption and decryption to authenticate the process and convert plaintext into
ciphertext and vice versa.

DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION –

1. PROCESS OF ENCRYPTION

Encryption key of
specified bits

Enter plain text or data to Encryption The data is encrypted i.e.

be encrypted algorithm converted into ciphertext

2. PROCESS OF DECRYPTION

Extract cipher text or data Decryption The data is decrypted i.e.

from it algorithm reconverted into plaintext

Decryption key of
specified bits

CRYPTOGRAPHIC GOALS –
1. SECRECY – It ensures that the data over transmission is accessed only by legitimate
users and not any third party.
2. AUTHENTICATION – The trueness or identity of the sender is verified to ensure
whether the data is coming from an authorized place or not.
 3. AUTHORIZATION – Only those with proper access rights are allowed to control the
information or data over the transmission.
4. NON-REPUDIATION – Neither the sender nor the receiver should be able to deny
the transmission of data.
5. INTEGRITY – It ensures that the data or information has not been changed even in
the smallest way. Only the authorized user has rights to alter data.

CATEGORISATION OF ENCRYPTION

1. SYMMETRIC KEY ENCRYPTION

In this process, both the ends i.e. one who encrypts the message and the other who
decrypts it use the same key or follow a simple transformation procedure to go between
the two keys. The only encryption technique known till the late 1970s uses same
algorithm or key for encryption of plaintext and decryption of ciphertext. Since a
common secret key is shared at both the ends, it is comparatively less secure than
asymmetric key encryption.
Types of symmetric key encryption – Twofish, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard),
Triple DES, DES (Data Encryption Standard) etc.

PLAIN TEXT CIPHERTEXT PLAIN TEXT

KEY USED FOR KEY USED FOR

ENCRYPTION ENCRYPTION = KEY
USED FOR
DECRYPTION

2. ASYMMETRIC KEY ENCRYPTION

The more secure method of encryption, also known as public key encryption involves the
usage of two keys - a public key and private key. The public key which may be known by
anyone is used to encrypt plaintext into ciphertext while the private key that is only
known to the receiver is used to decrypt the scrambled text. Both the keys are not similar
in any way. As the number of communicators in a network increase, the number of keys
 to be generated squares up and key management becomes very complex. Since each key
must be different from the other, management schemes are generated to keep them secret
and distinct.
Types of asymmetric key encryption – RSA (Rivest Shamir and Adleman), Diffie-
Hellman, and DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm).

PLAIN TEXT CIPHERTEXT PLAIN TEXT

PUBLIC KEY USED PRIVATE KEY USED

FOR ENCRYPTION FOR DECRYPTION

ANALYSIS OF TYPES OF SYMMETRIC ENCRYPTION :

1. DES (DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD) – Till the late 70s, i.e. until modern
cryptography came into action, DES was considered to be the most powerful encryption
algorithm. Developed at IBM, DES is kept in the insecure category due to its very small
key size. It uses 64 bit key for serving the purpose out of which only 56-bit keys are in
use as 8 bit is used as parity bits. This algorithm can run in several modes involving 16
rounds of various permutations and combinations.

PLAINTEXT
INITIAL STAGE
OF ROUND 1
56 BIT KEY FOR ENCRYPTION

PERMUTATION

ROUND 2

CIPHERTEXT FINAL STAGE

OF ROUND 16
PERMUTATION
 2. TRIPLE-DES( TRIPLE DES) – Published in 1998, triple DES algorithm has been
derived from DES. Here, we apply the DES algorithm thrice to a single data block. Three
keys each of 56 bits are used as encryption keys to 64-bit blocks ensuring higher security.
This algorithm finds its application in the electronic payment industry, Microsoft outlook,
Microsoft OneNote etc.

PLAIN TEXT DES DES DES CIPHER TEXT

ENCRYPTION ENCRYPTION ENCRYPTION
ALGORITHM ALGORITHM ALGORITHM

56 BIT KEY 56 BIT KEY 56 BIT KEY

3. AES (ADVANCED ENCRYPTION STANDARD) – Triple DES came as a replacement

for DES with increased key size, still it couldn’t meet the time and security requirements.
Hence, AES was introduced which is multiple times faster and stronger than DES and
can be applied on symmetric blocks using symmetric keys. It takes 128 bits data and keys
of length 128/192/256 bits. It offers effective security against various attacks namely in
smart cards etc. The various steps involved in it are byte substitution, shift rows, add
columns and add round key. No attacks against AES have been known yet making it one
of the best and future-proofing algorithms.
 START

EXPANSION OF KEY
(128/192/256 BITS)

FIRST ROUND
ADD ROUND KEY (XOR
DATA AND ROUND KEY)

BYTE SUBSTITUTION
INTERMEDIATE

SHIFT ROWS OPERATION

ROUNDS

ADD COLUMNS

ADD ROUND KEY

BYTE SUBSTITUTION
FINAL ROUND

SHIFT ROWS OPERATION

ADD ROUND KEY

STOP

ANALYSIS OF TYPES OF SYMMETRIC ENCRYPTION :

1. RSA (RIVEST-SHAMIR-ADLEMAN) – It is a public-key algorithm based on the factoring

problem i.e. finding the factors of an integer is difficult. It involves two keys- a public key
that is known to everyone for encryption purpose and a private key that is kept secret. Named
after its publishers, this algorithm was first published in 1977. A product of two very large
 prime numbers is used as a key to the process which is generally very difficult to decode. The
two prime numbers are kept hidden. Only those with extravagant knowledge of prime
numbers may crack the key.

2. DSA (DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM ) – It is a public key algorithm for message

authentication. As the handwritten signatures correspond to specific individuals, similarly
DSA is a technique that uses digital data to authenticate any person/entity. The main points
of this algorithm are –
a. Two different keys are generated namely signature key(private) and verification
key(public).
b. On one end, the signer gives the data to hash function and a hash of data is generated.
c. A digital signature is produced on feeding hash value and the signature key to the
signature algorithm. Data and signature are appended together and passed onto the
receiver.
d. On the other end, the receiver gets some value as result of feeding the verification key
and digital signature into the verification algorithm.
e. Now the receiver runs the same hash function to get the hash value.
f. Then the hash value and result of verification algorithm are compared so as to ensure the
correctness of digital signature.

This algorithm provides high data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.

START

DATA

DIGITAL SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

HASHING FUNCTION

HASHED VALUE

PUBLIC KEY
SIGNATURE ALGORITHM

DATA HASHING FUNCTION

SIGNATURE
YES
EQUAL? CORRECT DIGITAL
SIGNATURE

VERIFICATION ALGORITHM
HASHED VALUE
STOP

PRIVATE KEY