Category: Cryptography

TASK 1 (15 points):  Superencrypt “Abstractionism” by using keywords “Painter” for the ADFGVX substitution and “Kandinsky” for the transposition matrix. 
TASK 2 (3 points):  Please encrypt Claude Shannon’s quote by using the given key: “Information is the resolution of uncertainty” Given key: n+2, n-1, n+1, n-2 Example: You will encrypt the word “Hello” by using the given key above into “JDMJQ”.  
TASK 3 (3 points each, total 6 points):  Here is another encryption/decryption exercise. For this exercise, I have provided a word that will serve as the key. You must figure out the key in order to complete this section. To get you started: Easy = GXTW (Once you figure out the pattern to this, you can do the following): 3a. Encrypt this plaintext: Cryptography is the art of secret writing. 3b. Decrypt the following ciphertext: ALVAC KPLNV GGIEU RJBXY AVPSR OBAVF DC 
TASK 4 (7 points):  In 1759, Leonhard Euler, the famous mathematician, found the closed knight’s tour for traversing all the cells of the chessboard only once. Read the text inscribed in the cells of the chessboard along this tour (see Figure 1). The beginning of the text is at A8. Please, look through these resources: Knight’s tour – > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight’s_tour 2 -> http://www.t-bag.org/KTour/voyager0/magicsqr.gif  
TASK 5 (4 points):  To encrypt messages, John and Jane used Scytale. “Scytale is a tool used to perform a transposition cipher, consisting of a cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which is written a message. The ancient Greeks, and the Spartans in particular, are said to have used this cipher to communicate during military campaigns. The recipient uses a cylinder of the same diameter on which the parchment is wrapped to read the message. It has the advantage of being fast and not prone to mistakes—a necessary property when on the battlefield’ (read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale). John handed Jane a tape on which was written: Unfortunately, Jane lost her cylinder, but she sees that the tape is full, and knows that while winding the tape, the entire number of turnovers was made. Help her to recover the message. (Hint: there are 81 characters)  

Hashing is a one-way function that maps a message to a fixed-size sequence of bits (hashed value) with the assumption it is extremely difficult to reverse the process. Given the hashed-value, it is practically impossible to compute the original message given the hashed-value. It is extremely rare that two messages hash to the same value. When this happens, we refer to the event as a “collision”. In this paper, you are going to discuss why are collisions bad to message integrity. Also discuss the chances of collisions with the algorithm Message Digest 5 (MD5).

The hash value of a message is a one-way “unique value” that can be extracted from the message using algorithms like MD5 and SHA-x. In this paper, you are going to use a hash calculator (the best way to find one is to google hash calculator). Cut and paste the message below into a hash calculator and compute the MD5 or SHA-1 hashed value. Once you have the hashed value, store it in a text file (notepad). Now, search for an AES encryption tool on the Internet (google: AES encryption tool). Paste the hashed value into the AES tool (note that you will need to create a secret password/key to use the EAS Encryption tool. Once the encryption is completed, explain the resulting value (what is it?).

Elliptic Curve Cryptography has gained momentum in application recently because of the relatively smaller key size to achieve the same level of security using another asymmetrical algorithm like RSA. For example, a key size of 3072 in RSA has the same strength as an ECC key size of 256. In this paper, you are going to explain the Elliptic Curve Algorithm and why the key size does not have to be large to provide acceptable level of security for todays computing needs.

Two of the main VPN encryption protocols are TLS/SSL and IPSEC. Both protocols establish handshakes to exchange parameters which will be used to set up VPN connections. In this paper you will first describe the TLS/SSL VPN handshake followed by a the IPSEC handshake. Compare the two protocols and explain, according to you which one is better.