Abstract
This chapter briefly explains the evolution of applied cryptography by reflecting on its origins and its ongoing evolution. The objective of this chapter is to provide a basic insight into how applied cryptography has evolved whilst acknowledging the contributions of the inventors and security researchers that have further advanced the discipline. Indeed, applied cryptography and encryption are not the sum of one inventor or invention, they are the product of thousands of years of applied research. The final sections of the chapter explore the growing public demand for encryption and the paradox encryption creates for ransomware victims.
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Notes
- 1.
Note: Social media stories such as Wikileaks and Edward Snowden’s may have also played a significant role in the broader public’s use and perception of advanced encryption techniques. The use of encryption can also be commonly associated with dissidents and citizens under repressive regimes and those involved in forms of illegal activities such as drug trafficking and terrorism.
- 2.
Note: Current generation decryption applications apply extensive data analytics, using the most commonly used passwords first. Statistically, this could drastically reduce the time required to discover the key in comparison to conventional accumulation-type brute-force attacks.
- 3.
Note: This is the absolute theoretical maximum time frame it would take to discover all possible keys.
- 4.
Note: A rainbow table is a precomputed (calculated) table for reversing cryptographic hash functions.
- 5.
Note. NotPetya is a clear example of ransomware that was designed to be destructive.
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Ryan, M. (2021). Evolution of Applied Cryptography. In: Ransomware Revolution: The Rise of a Prodigious Cyber Threat. Advances in Information Security, vol 85. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66583-8_3
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