Cryptographic System
The first encryption system to meet the requirements of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is data encryption standard (DES). Also, DES is the first encryption system to be standardized (Stallings, 2013). Due to its shortcomings, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) has been developed to compliment DES. According to Shannon, a good cipher is identified according to the following characteristics:The required level of secrecy determines the amount of labor needed for the encryption and decryption. The enciphering algorithm and the set keys should be simple.
The implementation process should be possible and simple. The information in the message should not be corrupted and propagated by the errors in ciphering. The size of the enciphered texts either be smaller or the same size as the texts in the original message. It is a requirement that the National Institute of Standards and Technology should adhere to these Shannon's points when selecting both DES and AES for a good cryptographic system. Both AES and DES have used mathematical encryption, while at the same time have keys that are less complex, even though some keys are simple and have bad passwords. The simplicity of implementing the process is relatively simple as it requires programming into a hardware and the process automatically encodes.
Nonetheless, the difference between NIST's choice and Shannon's proposal in the AES and DES encryption is that an emergence of an error in the cipher would lead to the failure of the entire cipher since the aggregate data would be unreadable. The Shannon's standards boosted with the advancement in technology has enabled most mathematical encryptions to be processed automatically by computerized machines with zero error. Hence, errors in the cipher texts cannot be tolerated (Vacca, 2013). Also, NIST recommends for padding techniques in block cipher operation modes such as Electronic Code Book, Cipher Block Chaining, and Cipher Feedback. Output Feedback and Counter modes.Data encryption has enabled the protection of information from unauthorized individuals by changing data into forms that cannot be recognized by its attackers by making data unreadable. This has been made possible by Shannon's models which have been used in the current cyber protections. Cryptography has been widely used in securing sensitive military details, making it one of the main components of security policies of any organization. Therefore, it has been considered as an industry standard for the provision of information security, trust, resource access controls and electronic financial transactions. Cryptography, having been first used in Egypt, has revolutionized the way people handled information.
Another notable event where encryption was applied was the Second World War (Taqa, Zaidan & Zaidan, 2009). The allied forces were able to win over Germans since they managed to dissolve Enigma cipher machine which was used by the latter to encrypt their military communications. Also, the US Navy cryptographers, with assistance from Britain and Dutch also used the concept of cryptography to break several Japanese Navy crypto systems. It was for this system that enabled the US …
