Safari - Aug 7, 2019 at 10:34 AM PDF

The Basics of
Cryptography
With Applications in R
Alyson Brown
Source
Have you ever wondered how companies

securely store your passwords? Or how
your credit card information is kept
private when making online purchases?
The answer is cryptography. The vast

majority of internet sites now use some
form of cryptography to ensure the
privacy of its users. Even information
such as emails from your Gmail account
are encrypted as they float around in
Googleʼs data centers.
What is Cryptography?
Cryptography is the science of
transmitting information securely against
potential third party adversaries.
For example, think about “The Imitation

Game.” For those who have seen the
movie, you know that it is a story about
how Alan Turing creates the first
computer to decrypt the German Enigma
machine — a machine that encoded all
German communications, so that the
Nazis could safely transmit messages by
radio. Though these messages were
easily intercepted by the Allies, the
messages could not be understood
because they were all encoded, or
encrypted, with some foreign key which
changed daily.
Cover of “The Imitation Game”
Encryption Algorithms
N. Symmetric Key Encryption — In

symmetric key algorithms, there is
one common key, used to lock and
unlock the encryption “box.” Both
the sender and the receiver have the
same key. Symmetric key algorithms
are very fast because keys do not
need to be very long; however, there
exists the problem of sharing the
common key in the first place as it
could be intercepted and then the
entire system is compromised.
Q. Asymmetric Key Encryption — In
asymmetric key algorithms, only the
receiver holds the key. The receiver
can publicly send out a lock (or
method of locking our hypothetical
box), for which only the receiver
holds the key. The lock is called the
public key, and the key is called the
private key. Note: There is only
one public key for each private
key.
Asymmetric Key Encryption:

How does it work?*
First, the receiver generates 2 public keys

n and e, and one private key d by:
N. Choosing 2 large prime numbers p &

q, such that n = p*q.
Q. Choosing another prime number e,
such that 3<e<n-1.
^. Calculating d such that d*e-1 = k(p-
1)(q-1).
Next, youʼre ready to encrypt:
N. Next transform the plaintext that you

want to send into a number m, using
the ASCII numerical representation
or other method.
Q. Encrypt the number m, by finding
ciphertext c= m^e mod n.
^. Send n, e, and c to the receiver.
If this was hard to follow, please see the

example code on my Github, which walks
you through each step of the process,
using a package in R called ‘opensslʼ.
Excerpt seen below:
R code on Github to practice encrypting & decrypting

messages
Signatures
Another important aspect of encryption is
the ability to sign a message. It allows you
to verify senders and avoid sending
sensitive information to the wrong users
and/or public keys.
How to Sign a Message
Create a signature M, such that S = M^d

mod n, and send S along with your
message. Remember that d is your
private key.
How to Verify a Signature
The receiver can quickly establish that

the signature is valid if M= S^e mod n.
R code on Github to sign & verify a message
Hashing
Youʼll notice in the sample code above, I
used a function sha256() for a variable
m_hash. Hashing is a one-way
cryptographic function that allows you to
irreversibly transform information into a
string of letters and numbers called a
hash. Hashing is different from encryption
because a hash is meant to be impossible
to decrypt, though many have tried, and
some have succeeded. When you hear
about a password or other security
breach, it is usually referring to a
cryptographic hack in which hackers have
been able to match hashes back to the
original text.
How it works:
There are various hashing algorithms

(MD, SHA1, SHA2, & SHA3), but we will
focus on the SHA256 algorithm as it is
most common today.
The SHA256 algorithm first converts text

into a string of 256 bits (hence the name)
of 0 and 1. An example would be:
11100010101110001010111000101011100
01010111000101011100010101110001010
11100010101110001010111000101011100
01010111000101011100010101110001010
11100010101110001010111000101011100
01010111000101011100010101110001010
11100010101110001010111000101011100
01010000101
Since these binary hashes are extremely

long to display, they are then converted
hexadecimal format (a 64 character
combination of values 0–9 & a-f), with
each section of 4 bits representing on
character. An example of the hexadecimal
representation is:
a235810cd87df030d78e890d90c187cc0
4a09ad09b289b91bbae9d890f987e
Passwords
A major use of hashing is in password

verification. It would be extremely unsafe
for your bank to keep a database of
passwords, so it maintains a database of
hashes, that correspond to your actual
password. When log in to your bank
online, the system hashes your password,
and then checks it against the hash that it
has on file for you.
This system works because hashing

algorithms will always produce the
same hash for the same password—
hashes are not a random combination
of characters. Hashing is also the
reason that it is important to have
complex and unique passwords,
because if I compute the hash for
“password123”, and I match it up to
the hash that corresponds to you,
then I know your password is
“password123,” and I can easily hack
your bank account online.
Bonus Content!
Rainbow tables
Rainbow tables are databases of hashes

to common passwords.
Take ATM pin codes for example. There

are 10,000 combinations of 4-digit ATM
pin codes using digits 0–9. A rainbow
table would provide the hash for each of
the 10,000 codes, and a hacker could use
this list of hashes to map the hash back
to your code, thus decoding your pin
number from its hash.
How can I sleep at night?
Relax! Banks and most other

organizations understand that hackers
want to obtain sensitive information, so
they typically provide an extra layer of
security through something called a
“salt.”
Salts are extra strings of

characters added to a
password (or other
information) to make it
more unique, longer, and
more difficult to hack.
Instead of having a pin = “0000,” adding a

salt would change your pin to something
like “0000B_of_A_salt,” which would have
an entirely different hash. Organizations
can creatively use salts to make hacking
extremely difficult. In order to use a
rainbow table to crack such an algorithm,
you would need a rainbow table for each
possible salt, adding tremendously to the
number of possible combinations of pin
numbers.
Blockchain
Cryptography enables blockchain to

verify senders in a network through
signatures, as well as ensure that past
transactions and records, known as
“blocks,” cannot be changed.
Blockchain also utilizes hashing

algorithms to assign a unique hash to
each block, allowing you to distinguish
between blocks.
Conclusion
Now that you know all about hashing and
encryption, take a look at this short video
about how Alan Turing was able to
successfully “hack” the German Enigma
machine, and watch the movie if you
havenʼt already!
*Note: For the purposes of this article, I

have focused on an asymmetric
encryption algorithm called RSA (Rivest,
Shamir, and Adleman) Encryption.

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The Basics of

Have you ever wondered how companies

The answer is cryptography. The vast

For example, think about “The Imitation

Cover of “The Imitation Game”

N. Symmetric Key Encryption — In

Asymmetric Key Encryption:

First, the receiver generates 2 public keys

N. Choosing 2 large prime numbers p &

Next, youʼre ready to encrypt:

N. Next transform the plaintext that you

If this was hard to follow, please see the

R code on Github to practice encrypting & decrypting

How to Sign a Message

Create a signature M, such that S = M^d

How to Verify a Signature

The receiver can quickly establish that

R code on Github to sign & verify a message

There are various hashing algorithms

The SHA256 algorithm first converts text

Since these binary hashes are extremely

A major use of hashing is in password

This system works because hashing

Rainbow tables are databases of hashes

Take ATM pin codes for example. There

How can I sleep at night?

Relax! Banks and most other

Salts are extra strings of

Instead of having a pin = “0000,” adding a

Cryptography enables blockchain to

Blockchain also utilizes hashing

*Note: For the purposes of this article, I

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