Based on your Week Two Learning Team Collaborative discussio…
Based on your Week Two Learning Team Collaborative discussion, , individually, a short review of this encryption scenario and explain your examples of confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements. Include links to the reference material. any format to present. Some guidelines are: your assignment according to APA guidelines.
Answer
Introduction
In today’s digital age, the need for strong data encryption has become increasingly important in order to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. Encryption is the process of converting plaintext data into ciphertext, making it unreadable to anyone without the correct decryption key. This provides confidentiality, which ensures that only authorized users can access and understand the data.
Confidentiality Requirements
Confidentiality is a fundamental requirement for any encryption scenario. It ensures that sensitive data remains inaccessible to unauthorized individuals or entities. In the context of data encryption, confidentiality is achieved by applying cryptographic algorithms and keys to secure the data. These algorithms make it difficult for unauthorized users to decrypt the ciphertext and obtain the original plaintext.
Let’s consider an example of an email communication between two individuals, Alice and Bob. Alice wants to send a confidential message to Bob, and she wants to ensure that only Bob can access and understand the message. To achieve confidentiality, Alice can use a symmetric encryption algorithm like Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), where she encrypts the plaintext message using a secret key shared with Bob. Only Bob, who possesses the same key, can decrypt the ciphertext and read the original message.
Integrity Requirements
Integrity refers to the assurance that the data has not been modified or tampered with during storage or transmission. In an encryption scenario, ensuring data integrity is crucial to prevent unauthorized entities from modifying the ciphertext and potentially altering the decrypted message.
Continuing with our example of Alice and Bob’s email communication, let’s assume that an attacker named Eve intercepts the encrypted message. If the message’s integrity is compromised, Eve could modify the ciphertext to manipulate the decrypted message received by Bob. To prevent this, Alice can use techniques like message authentication codes (MACs) or digital signatures. These techniques generate a unique value for the encrypted data, which can be verified by Bob upon decryption. If the value does not match, it indicates that the data has been tampered with.
Availability Requirements
Availability ensures that authorized users have timely and uninterrupted access to information when needed. In data encryption, availability requirements involve ensuring that the encrypted data can be decrypted and accessed by authorized users whenever required.
In our example, if Bob’s key to decrypt the email message is unavailable due to technical issues, he will not be able to access the original plaintext message. Therefore, it is crucial to store encryption keys securely and implement appropriate key management practices to maintain availability.
Conclusion
In summary, to meet the confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements in an encryption scenario, encryption algorithms and keys are utilized to ensure that data remains confidential and unreadable to unauthorized users. Techniques like message authentication codes and digital signatures are employed to maintain data integrity, preventing unauthorized modifications. Finally, maintaining the availability of encrypted data involves proper key management practices and ensuring that authorized users can decrypt and access the data whenever needed.