Lab Assessment File

Assessment Worksheet

Applying Encryption and Hashing Algorithms for Secure
Communications

Course Name and Number: Cybercrime Techniques and Responses

Overview
In this lab, you applied common cryptographic techniques to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. You created an MD5sum and SHA1 hash on a simple text file on a Linux virtual machine and compared the hash values of the original files with those generated after the file had been modified. Next, you used GnuPG to generate an encryption key pair and encrypted a message. Finally, you used the key pairs to send secure messages between two user accounts on the virtual machine and verified the integrity of the received files.

Lab Assessment Questions & Answers
1.Compare the hash values calculated for Example.txt that you documented during this lab. Explain in your own words why the hash values will change when the data is modified.
When the data is modified, the data then makes the complexity of the document more sophisticated therefore enabling the hash values to become more complex. So, the more simple the data, the more simple the hash value, and vice versa.

2. Why are the MD5sum and SHA1sum hash values the same every time you calculate for the example.txt file? What if it were different when you recalculated the hash value at the other end?
The hash values are the same because the file is still the same. If they were different, then the contents of the file would have changed.

3. If you want secure e-mail communications without encrypting an e-mail message, what other security countermeasure can you deploy to ensure message integrity?
You could deploy a Digital Signature

4.What is the –e switch used for with running the GnuPG command?
A. Extract
B. Encrypt
C.