Public Key Infrastructure

PKI refers to processes and technologies which provide a secure data exchange between two nodes over unsecured infrastructure. It uses private and public key pairs to achieve the underlying security service.

There are three types of cryptography algorithms:

• Symmetric
• Asymmetric
• Hash function.

Symmetric encryption

In symmetric encryption, a single key is used both to encrypt and decrypt traffic. Symmetric encryptions are fast, simple and easy to implement. However, some easy ciphers are vulnerable to brute-force attacks, making management a complex job. If the key is compromised, then the whole system becomes vulnerable. Data encryption standard (DES) and Advance encryption standard (AES) are symmetric systems, but AES is much more reliable than DES.

The symmetric encryption scheme has five elements:

• Plain-text: Refers to the original data that needs to be encrypted
• Encryption Algorithm: Refers to a combination of ciphers used to encrypt data
• Secure Key: Refers to input in...