Working from Home and Data Protection Omar A. Pérez Master in Computer Science Dr. Jeffrey Duffany Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico Abstract ⎯ Thanks to the pandemic the new order If the human has been trying to secure is working from home. When you work from the massages since Egypt nowadays with all the office the security of the data is responsibility of technological advance, easy communication, you as employee and the corporation to provide a Internet, emails, cloud storage, etc. is very safe network. Maybe you see it but working from important to keep your data safe. Beyond the home you have a lot of responsibility to keep that obvious benefit of protecting private information data save no matter what. Imagen working for a from being stolen or compromised, encryption also company that is building a Top-Secret Jet and you provides a means of proving that information is are just happy working from home and sending this authentic and comes from the point of origin it information using an unsecure method and claims to come from. It can be used to verify the someone managed to get that information. In the origin of a message and confirm that it hasn't been next couple of months, you will see a “great value” altered during transmission [3]. In this project we jet from another country and probably you will get are going to talk about encryption methods as fired. Working from home you have more asymmetric, symmetric and hybrid encryption. responsibility to keep the data and network secure The History of Encryption all the time. Key Terms ⎯ Asymmetric key, Cryptography, The Caesar cipher, also called a Caesar shift, Decryption, Encryption, Hybrid Encryption, Public gets its name from Julius Caesar, who occasionally Key, Symmetric Key. used this encoding method in his own private messages. As one of the most basic encryption INTRODUCTION techniques, the Caesar cipher works by replacing each letter in the original plaintext message with a Since the beginning of the times when people different letter based off a fixed shift of the started to communicate, they looked a way to hide alphabet (figure 1). the message from another person, enemy, country etc. Since then at war armies have been trying to keep any information they share from the enemy because this can be the leverage between winning or lost. If you share a battle strategic and your enemy managed to intercept the message, then the enemy have the advantage. There are several possibilities to exactly how encryption first started, but it is known that it did start in ancient Egypt. Figure 1 One of the beliefs of how encryption started is that Caesar cipher the Egyptians wished to preserve the secrecy of the religious rituals from the casual observer or another To encode a secret message using a Caesar reason is it might have been a political move to shift of 7 to the right. First, we create our promote their religion [1]. But Julius Caesar was substitution table by printing the alphabet followed the first person to use the encryption for military by the alphabet shifted 7 places to the right. purposes. Original: building block of data security and is the simplest ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ and most important way to ensure a computer Shifted: system's information can't be stolen and read by TUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS someone who wants to use it for nefarious means. Next, we take each letter of our plaintext Utilized by both individual users and large message and replace it with its corresponding letter corporations, encryption is widely used on the in the shifted alphabet. internet to ensure the sanctity of user information Plaintext: that's sent between a browser and a server. That THISISASECRETMESSAGEBURNAFTERREA information could include everything from payment DING data to personal information. Firms of all sizes Ciphertext: typically use encryption to protect sensitive data on MABLBLTLXVKXMFXLLTZXUNKGTYMXK their servers and databases [3]. KXTWBGZ [2] With the rise of computers, cryptography To revert the encoded message back into its reached much higher levels of progress than in the readable plaintext form, the recipient must re-create analog age. 128-bit mathematical encryption, much the substitution table using the appropriate shift and stronger than any ancient or medieval encryption, is then substitute each encoded character with its now the standard for many sensitive devices and original character, according to the shift [2]. computer systems. In 1990, a whole new form of Cryptographic science would continue to cryptography, dubbed quantum cryptography, progress in the following centuries. A remarkable would be launched by computer scientists who advance in cryptography would be described, but hoped to once again raise the level of protection perhaps never built, by Thomas Jefferson in the offered by modern encryption. 1790s. His invention, known as a cipher wheel, More recently, cryptographic techniques have consisted of 36 letter rings on movable wheels, also been used to make cryptocurrencies possible. which could be used to achieve complex coding. Cryptocurrencies take advantage of several This concept was so advanced that it would serve as advanced cryptographic techniques such as hash the basis for American military cryptography until functions, public key cryptography, and digital World War II. signatures. These techniques are mainly used to World War II would bring with it the perfect ensure the security of data stored in blockchains example of analog cryptography: The Enigma and to authenticate transactions. A specialized form machine. Like the encryption wheel, this device, of cryptography, called the Elliptic Curve Digital employed by the Axis powers, used rotating wheels Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), serves as a prop to to encrypt a message - making it virtually Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency systems, by impossible to read without another Enigma providing supplemental security and ensuring that machine. Early forms of computer technology funds can only be used by their rightful owners. would be employed to eventually help break Cryptographic Usage Enigma's encryption. The successful decryption of Enigma messages is still considered a critical • Confidentiality: Keep information secret from component of the subsequent Allied victory. everyone except for those who have access authorization. Computers and Cryptography • Integrity: Ensure that the data hasn’t been In the computing world, encryption is the altered. conversion of data from a readable format into an • Message Authentication: Confirm the source encoded format that can only be read or processed of the message. after it's been decrypted. Encryption is the basic • Identification: Check the identity of the entity. • Digital signature: Verify entity with the symmetric keys must be created using an RNG that message. is certified according to industry standards, such • Certification: Approval of certain information as FIPS 140-2 [4]. by a trusted entity Some examples of symmetric encryption • Anonymity: Hide the identity of an entity algorithms are: involved in some process. • AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) • Revocation: Withdraw from any certification • DES (Data Encryption Standard) or authorization. • IDEA (International Data Encryption • Disavowal: Prevent the denial of previous Algorithm) • Blowfish (Drop-in replacement for DES or agreements or actions. IDEA) • RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4) SYMMETRIC KEY ENCRYPTION • RC5 (Rivest Cipher 5) • RC6 (Rivest Cipher 6) Symmetric encryption (figure 2) is a type of encryption where only one key (a secret key) is AES, DES, IDEA, Blowfish, RC5 and RC6 are used to both encrypt and decrypt electronic block ciphers. RC4 is stream cipher. information. The entities communicating via Advantages of Symmetric Encryption symmetric encryption must exchange the key so • A symmetric system is faster. that it can be used in the decryption process. This • Symmetric systems the encrypted data can be encryption method differs from asymmetric transferred on the link even if there is a encryption where a pair of keys, one public and one possibility that the data will be intercepted. private, is used to encrypt and decrypt messages Since there is no key transmitted with the data, [4]. the chances of data being decrypted are null. • The Symmetric System uses a password for the authentication to verify the receiver identity. • The system that has the secret keys is the only one capable of decrypt the message [6]. Disadvantages of Symmetric Encryption • Symmetric cryptosystems have a problem of Figure 2 key transportation. The secret key is to be Symmetric encryption transmitted to the receiving system before the actual message is to be transmitted. Every By using symmetric encryption algorithms, means of electronic communication is insecure data is converted to a form that cannot be as it is impossible to guarantee that no one will understood by anyone who does not possess the be able to tap communication channels. The secret key to decrypt it. Once the intended recipient only secure way of exchanging keys would be who possesses the key has the message, the exchanging them personally. algorithm reverses its action so that the message is • Cannot provide digital signatures that cannot returned to its original and understandable form. be repudiated [6]. The secret key that the sender and recipient both use could be a specific password/code or it can be ASYMMETRIC KEY ENCRYPTION random string of letters or numbers that have been generated by a secure random number generator Asymmetrical encryption (figure 3) is also (RNG). For banking-grade encryption, the known as public key cryptography, which is a relatively new method, compared to symmetric keys do not ever need to be transmitted or encryption. Asymmetric encryption uses two keys revealed to anyone. to encrypt a plain text. Secret keys are exchanged • Can provide digital signatures that can be over the Internet or a large network. It ensures that repudiated [6]. malicious persons do not misuse the keys.