Encrption

Encryption

• A hacker is often referred to as an eavesdropper. Using encryption helps to minimise this risk.

• The original data being sent is known as plaintext. Once it has gone through an encryption algorithm, it produces ciphertext:

Symmetric encryption

• Symmetric encryption uses an encryption key; the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt the encoded message.

• Suppose our encryption key is: 4 2 9 1 3 6 2 8 5 6

Asymmetric encryption

• Asymmetric encryption was developed to overcome the security problems associated with symmetric encryption.
• It makes use of two keys called the public key and the private key.

Step	Process
1
2	Tom now uses Jane’s public key ( ) to encrypt the document he wishes to send to her
3
4	Jane uses her matching private key ( ) to unlock Tom’s document and decrypt it