Encryption
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Caesar Cipher........................................................................................................................................2
RSA Encryption......................................................................................................................................2
Vernam Cypher......................................................................................................................................2
Cloudflare encryption method..............................................................................................................3
Introduction
Encryption is the process of converting data into a ‘secret’ code that only the user/owner of the data
knows to prevent unauthorized parties discovering what the code entails. Despite this sounding like
quite a modern thing, it can be dated back all the way to the Romans.
Caesar Cipher
As mentioned previously, encryption can be dated back to the Roman period, and this is the method
they used. Julius Caesar used this encryption to communicate with his army in a way that the enemy
could not understand. Despite it now being seen as a very basic level of ciphering, it worked
successfully back then. The Caesar cipher is created by shifting the whole alphabet left or right by X
amount, for example:
Normal: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Caesar: MNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKL
RSA Encryption
RSA encryption is the main encryption used on the internet. It has two prime factors to it and is
based around numbers. A message can easily be encrypted with the number, but the prime factors
are needed to decrypt it. Current technology shows that a 200 digit number would take million s of
years to crack. However, if new mathematical methods are found/created to find factors, this may
render RSA Encryption useless.
Vernam Cypher
This is the only cypher to be proven mathematically secure. It needs a random bit pattern where
each is likely to be a 1 or a 0, 50% chance of each. This is combined with the random pattern using
bitwise addition.
A 4 bit message would be encrypted as shown:
Message: 0010
Key: 1011
Cyphertext: 1001
Cloudflare encryption method
I wanted to include this as I find it quite interesting. Cloudflare, a large company specialising in data
storage, uses lava lamps to product random keys. They have 100 lava lamps displayed on the wall,
and a camera takes a photo of the lava lamps at regular intervals. Each pixel represents it’s own
numerical value, and with lava lamps being different and random at every single moment, it is
impossible to assign a certain method to figuring out the key, which is created by the numerical
values from the pixels. This is one of the only encryption methods which is sufficiently random, and
not computer generated.
Source: Cloudflare lava lamps