Case Study Week 3

Principles of Info System Security

Professor Gross

by Nick Post

Concerning the research collaboration of ABC Institute of Research and XYZ Inc., there are two standard methods that shall be considered for the encryption of all sensitive data being transmitted over the Internet. There is symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption. It is the intention of this paper to describe both methods and give an opinion on which method to use to secure the sensitive date.

When a symmetric encrypted key is used, both parties share the same key to both encrypt and decrypt data. Since symmetric encryption's use-case is to share information between users, each has to posses a shared key. Although a symmetric key requires less computer resources, is simplistic and easy to understand, the utmost security measures should be set in place to ensure the safety and secrecy of the shared key by all collaborators. Should the key become compromised in some way, all sensitive data will be compromised. Also, exchanging the secret key over the Internet or over a large network is extremely risky because it can become intercepted by an attacker who could then use that key to decrypt the shared data. There is an alternative to this type of encryption, however, that could be more secure, though it poses its own disadvantages: asymmetric encryption.

An asymmetric encrypted method relies on a public and private key. The public key is available to anyone who might wish to share encrypted data. The public key is used to encrypt the data being sent, while the private key (kept secret) is used to decrypt said data. The public key is not at as much risk because only the private key can unlock it. Asymmetric encryption, however, utilizes a lot of computing power when encrypting and decrypting the data being shared with this method. Despite its heavy drain on