Imagine you’re storing your most precious belongings in a virtual vault, accessible from anywhere in the world. Sounds convenient, right? However, have you ever considered the possibility that someone else could be able to open that vault? In the world of cloud computing, data security is a top priority. That’s where hybrid cryptography works together to protect your sensitive data. Therefore, in this article, we will cover everything you need to know about hybrid cryptography to familiarize you with the program better.
What is Hybrid cryptography?
Hybrid cryptography is a method of encrypting data that combines the benefits of two distinct cryptographic techniques, symmetric and asymmetric, to ensure a high degree of security. In cryptography, an algorithm or a sequence of mathematical operations transforms the original human-readable message, also known as plain text, so it appears to be gibberish to an unwary observer. We refer to this gibberish as ciphertext. Hybrid cryptography combines the best features of both methods to produce a reliable and effective data security system.
Symmetric Cryptography
This kind of cryptography uses a shared key for message encryption and decryption between the sender and the recipient. The difficulty lies in distributing the key among numerous individuals.
Asymmetric Cryptography
This type of cryptography uses a pair of keys to encrypt and decrypt information. One uses a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The intended recipient is the only one with the private key, so even if everyone knows the public key, only the intended recipient can decode a message.
By integrating symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hybrid cryptography achieves a superior level of security compared to using either encryption method independently. This hybrid approach facilitates message encryption for one or multiple recipients, making it ideal for environments with multiple users where decryption needs to be restricted to designated individuals.
How Hybrid Cryptography Works To Secure Data In Cloud Computing?
We are all aware that cloud storage systems are secured through hybrid cryptography. Here are the steps on how it works:
1) Key Generation:
- The sender generates a symmetric key (a secret key) for encrypting the actual message.
- The sender obtains the public keys of the recipients.
2) Symmetric Encryption:
- The sender encrypts the message using the symmetric key. Symmetric encryption is fast and efficient for encrypting large amounts of data.
3) Asymmetric Encryption:
- The sender encrypts the symmetric key using the recipient’s public key. Each recipient will have their own public key, so the symmetric key is encrypted separately for each recipient.
- This ensures that only the intended recipient can decrypt the symmetric key with their private key.
4) Sending the Encrypted Data:
- The sender sends the encrypted message and the encrypted symmetric key to the recipient(s).
5) Decryption:
- The recipient uses their private key to decrypt the symmetric key.
- Once the symmetric key is obtained, the recipient uses it to decrypt the message.
Example:
Alice wants to send a confidential file to Bob and Charlie:
- Alice generates a symmetric key (e.g., a 256-bit AES key).
- Alice encrypts the file using this symmetric key.
- Alice encrypts the symmetric key with Bob’s public key and separately with Charlie’s public key.
- Alice sends the encrypted file, the encrypted symmetric key for Bob, and the encrypted symmetric key for Charlie.
Bob receives the encrypted data:
- Bob uses his private key to decrypt the symmetric key.
- Bob then uses the symmetric key to decrypt the file.
Charlie does the same:
- Charlie uses his private key to decrypt the symmetric key.
- Charlie then uses the symmetric key to decrypt the file.
This method ensures that only Bob and Charlie can decrypt the symmetric key and, consequently, the file. The combination of symmetric and asymmetric encryption leverages the strengths of both methods to provide efficient and secure communication.
Benefits of Hybrid Cryptography
A strong defense against cyberattacks is one of the numerous advantages of hybrid cryptography, which combines symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. Large-scale data processing and storage are best suited for symmetric encryption due to its faster speed compared to asymmetric encryption. Given that this type of cryptography only requires the management of one pair of keys as opposed to several symmetric keys which simplifies key management.
In conclusion, hybrid cryptography offers a reliable and effective means of preventing unwanted access to sensitive data. Through the integration of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, hybrid cryptography provides an effective barrier against cyberattacks. Therefore, as our reliance on cloud-based services grows, it’s critical to comprehend how crucial hybrid cryptography is to data security.
Written and edited by: Ankit Bhardwaj, Data Engineer Manager, Travelers, USA. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
