Define confidentiality, integrity and authenticity in a few sentences. Which one
ID: 3701333 • Letter: D
Question
Define confidentiality, integrity and authenticity in a few sentences.
Which ones of these properties are provided by the One-Time Pad? Justify your
answers.
Give three reasons why the one-time pad is difficult to use in practice.
Show that re-using a key with the one-time pad is a fatal mistake. Is it also a problem
with a stream cipher? Justify your answer.
Explain in a few sentences the difference between computationally secure schemes and
perfectly secure ones. Give one example of a cryptosystem for each of these categories.
Why is the CBC mode of encryption insecure?
Describe the Counter Model of Operation of a block cipher.
Describe 3DES. Is a 2DES secure? Why?
Explanation / Answer
Define confidentiality, integrity and authenticity in a few sentences.
Answer:
confidentiality:
Confidentiality, in the context of computer systems, allows authorized users to access sensitive and protected data. Specific mechanisms ensure confidentiality and safeguard data from harmful intruders.
Confidentiality is roughly equivalent to privacy. Measures undertaken to ensure confidentiality are designed to prevent sensitive information from reaching the wrong people, while making sure that the right people can in fact get it: Access must be restricted to those authorized to view the data in question. It is common, as well, for data to be categorized according to the amount and type of damage that could be done should it fall into unintended hands. More or less stringent measures can then be implemented according to those categories.
A good example of methods used to ensure confidentiality is an account number or routing number when banking online. Data encryption is a common method of ensuring confidentiality. User IDs and passwords constitute a standard procedure; two-factor authentication is becoming the norm. Other options include biometric verification and security tokens, key fobs or soft tokens. In addition, users can take precautions to minimize the number of places where the information appears and the number of times it is actually transmitted to complete a required transaction. Extra measures might be taken in the case of extremely sensitive documents, precautions such as storing only on air gapped computers, disconnected storage devices or, for highly sensitive information, in hard copy form only.
Integrity:
Integrity, in the context of computer systems, refers to methods of ensuring that data is real, accurate and safeguarded from unauthorized user modification.
A good example of methods used to ensure confidentiality is an account number or routing number when banking online. Data encryption is a common method of ensuring confidentiality. User IDs and passwords constitute a standard procedure; two-factor authentication is becoming the norm. Other options include biometric verification and security tokens, key fobs or soft tokens. In addition, users can take precautions to minimize the number of places where the information appears and the number of times it is actually transmitted to complete a required transaction. Extra measures might be taken in the case of extremely sensitive documents, precautions such as storing only on air gapped computers, disconnected storage devices or, for highly sensitive information, in hard copy form only.
authenticity:
In the context of computer systems, authentication is a process that ensures and confirms a user’s identity. Authentication is one of the five pillars of information assurance (IA). The other four are integrity, availability, confidentiality and nonrepudiation
Authentication begins when a user tries to access information. First, the user must prove his access rights and identity. When logging into a computer, users commonly enter usernames and passwords for authentication purposes. This login combination, which must be assigned to each user, authenticates access. However, this type of authentication can be circumvented by hackers.
A better form of authentication, biometrics, depends on the user’s presence and biological makeup (i.e., retina or fingerprints). This technology makes it more difficult for hackers to break into computer systems.
The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) authentication method uses digital certificates to prove a user’s identity. There are other authentication tools, too, such as key cards and USB tokens. One of the greatest authentication threats occurs with email, where authenticity is often difficult to verify. For example, unsecured emails often appear legitimate.
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