Book Image

Modern Cryptography for Cybersecurity Professionals

By : Lisa Bock
Book Image

Modern Cryptography for Cybersecurity Professionals

By: Lisa Bock

Overview of this book

In today's world, it is important to have confidence in your data storage and transmission strategy. Cryptography can provide you with this confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation. But are you aware of just what exactly is involved in using cryptographic techniques? Modern Cryptography for Cybersecurity Professionals helps you to gain a better understanding of the cryptographic elements necessary to secure your data. The book begins by helping you to understand why we need to secure data and how encryption can provide protection, whether it be in motion or at rest. You'll then delve into symmetric and asymmetric encryption and discover how a hash is used. As you advance, you'll see how the public key infrastructure (PKI) and certificates build trust between parties, so that we can confidently encrypt and exchange data. Finally, you'll explore the practical applications of cryptographic techniques, including passwords, email, and blockchain technology, along with securely transmitting data using a virtual private network (VPN). By the end of this cryptography book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of cryptographic techniques and terms, learned how symmetric and asymmetric encryption and hashed are used, and recognized the importance of key management and the PKI.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Section 1: Securing Our Data
5
Section 2: Understanding Cryptographic Techniques
9
Section 3: Applying Cryptography in Today's World

Chapter 6: Examining Hash Algorithms

If you look up the word "hash," you will see several definitions. One of the definitions is to chop food into small pieces. That is what a hash algorithm does to data. A hash algorithm will chop or reduce a variable-length block of text to produce a fixed-length hash value. The other key factor is that a hash value is a one-way function in that it cannot be restored to the original message. In this chapter, we'll describe the concept of the hash algorithm and investigate the many ways we can use a hash value.

Not all hash algorithms are the same in that some have more desirable attributes. We'll talk about what comprises an exceptional attribute when using a hash algorithm and list several desired qualities. We'll then take a look at the hash algorithms that are in use today, and why some are no longer in use. Finally, we'll take a closer look at how message authentication works, along with outlining a few practical...