Cryptography IT & Computer Science Coursework Paper (Coursework Sample)

Describe two specific uses of encryption on the internet
1 To make Internet communications secure by making sure that no one but the intended recipient knows what is in a message sent by the sender.
2 To ensure data confidentiality and privacy in commercial transactions by protecting consumer credit card numbers, birthdate, and social security numbers.
Describe how the application uses encryption including the algorithm (steps) that is used to encrypt something.
It uses encryption to ensure confidentiality and integrity. Encryption converts the plaintext readable message to ciphertext. It requires a key in encrypting and decrypting a message. Creating a ciphertext requires a cipher which is a series of well-defined steps (algorithms) used to encrypt and decrypt messages. Using a public key encryption system where any person can encrypt a message using the public key of the receiver and the receiver is the only one that can decrypt it using his private key. Pairs of unrelated keys make this algorithm secure.
RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adelman): uses the product of two very large prime numbers with an equal length of between 100 and 200 digits. It is used for secure communications. It depends on asymmetric encryption and covers signing and also encrypts the contents of the message.
DIFFIE-HELLMAN: Provides an electronic exchange method to share the secret key. Examples like TLS, SSL, SSH, IPsec uses this algorithm.