By: Gunter Fuchs
Not considering how to actually do encryption or authentication, it is fairly simple for a native Latin speaker (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=authentic, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=crypto) to distinguish between the two. We authenticate something to prove to the receiver of the “something” that it actually came from us. We encrypt a message so nobody, including us, can read it. Why do we authenticate or encrypt? We authenticate so that the receiver is assured that what she received came from us and not from an imposter. This “thing” can be an item – a coin or painting for instance, or a piece of information, an email attachment or a speed command to a uranium centrifuge. We encrypt information so that only the intended receiver(s) can understand it.
So that was simple. But why do computer gurus go through great efforts to provide means of information authentication? Wouldn’t encrypting information be enough? Couldn’t the sender just include its name and address in the information and then encrypt? Well, no. The problem is that although a “man in the middle” will not understand the information, he will still be able to change it. For instance, in computer communication protocols a destination address (port) might be at a fixed position in a message. An adversary could copy such a message when it is on its way through some wire, change this value randomly, and monitor its own port/s until one of these messages – though still garbled – arrives. Once the adversary has received one message, he can now inject the encrypted port value for his own port for every message. One message would not be enough for a hacker to perform decryption, but many makes this possible. Not only would an adversary then be able to decipher messages that were not meant for her, but she can now also “break the code”, meaning deduce the encryption key. And with that key in hand, she can now send messages that are not authentic.
Therefore, a secure communication consists of authenticating the message and encrypting it. To learn more about the importance of protecting your trade secrets, check out this white paper.
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