Cryptography: Salvaging Exploitations against Data Integrity

Abstract

Cryptography is the science and art of codes that makes it possible for two people to exchange data in such a way that other people cannot understand the message. In this study – we are concerned with methods of altering data such that its recipient can undo the alteration and discover the original text. The original text is called plaintext (PT) while altered text is ciphertext (CT). Conversion from PT to CT is called encoding/enciphering as codes that result from this process are called ciphers. The reverse operation is called decoding/deciphering. If a user tries to reverse the cipher by making meaning of it without prior knowledge of what method is used for encoding as the data was originally, not intended for the user, the process is called cracking, while such a user is a called a cryptanalyst. Cryptography is about communicating in the presence of an adversary (cryptanalyst) – and it embodies problems such as (encryption, authentication, key distribution to name a few). The field of cryptography and informatics provides a theoretical foundation based on which we may understand what exactly these problems are, how to evaluate protocols that purport to solve them, and how to build protocols in whose security we can have confidence. Thus, cryptography is the only practical means of sending and receiving data over an insecure channel from source to destination in such a way that other users cannot understand the message unless it was intended for them. Data sent over public network is not safe and the more ciphertext a cryptanalyst has, the easier it is to crack the ciphers. Thus, it is good to change the coding mechanism regularly – because, every coding scheme has a key set. Keywords: