Mastering Cryptography Techniques with CASP

Enterprise Security is one of the biggest challenge for the security professionals. As every company may it be public or private, is investing hugely on IT infrastructure, maintaining enterprise security always tops their priority list, thereby skyrocketing the demand for the expert security professionals. Ensuring utmost security for user data, IPR, critical assets and confidential information requires professionals having extensive knowledge of cryptography concepts and encryption techniques. Cryptography techniques lie at the core of the CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) certification and enjoy 30% weightage to the Enterprise Security domain. Cryptography Techniques

Cryptography refers to the process of converting information into an unreadable and difficult to comprehend format contributing to enhance the data security. Many Cryptography techniques can be employed to upkeep the enterprise security including:

· Key Stretching: Key Stretching refers to creating a longer and random password and avoiding weak passwords. It is one of the best defense techniques to combat brute-force attacks. Key derivation function algorithm used in this technique allows creating foolproof passwords making it difficult to guess for the hackers and intruders.

· Hashing: Hashing is a cryptographic technique that uses hash function to generate a fixed size alphanumeric string known as a hash value. This technique aims to maintain data and information integrity with diverse hash functions such as Message Digest 5 and 6 and SHA-1, SHA-2, SHA-3.

· Code Signing: The code signing technique uses cryptography hash algorithms. This process uses digital signs for software programs to maintain the authenticity and integrity of unique codes to avoid namespace conflicts. This technique ensures that the code remains unaltered.

· Cryptographically Secure Pseudorandom Number Generation: Cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generation is a strong cryptography algorithm that generates random number sequences by using mathematical concepts and formulas to protect data.

· Perfect Forward Secrecy: In cryptography, Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) technique generates a session key for every user session that cannot be used in future to decrypt the recorded session. PFS works at the transport layer and can be used to defend man-in-the middle attack.

· Transport Encryption: Transport encryption technique is used to protect against sniffing attacks. It ensures data protection over the network, while in transit. This technique can be implemented through SSH, HTTP, TLS and IPsec, that use HMAC for secured authentication and data security.

· Digital Signature: Digital signatures is the most common mathematical cryptography technique to authenticate the digital documents.

· Entropy and Diffusion: Entropy refers to randomness in a text message. Applying entropy neutralizes the message structure making it difficult to decrypt and understand it. Diffusion technique in cryptography refers to changing the location of original message in the cypher (the encryption algorithm) to provide data protection.

· Confusion: The confusion technique refers to complexing the structure and making it difficult to co-relate and find a connection between the plain text and cypher text.

Cryptography techniques are primarily used to maintain enterprise security and are one of the key areas in CASP certification course.

CASP training and certification course encompasses diverse domains including risk management, research & analysis, business and technical integration and much more to extend cutting-edge competences in maintaining information and system security. Certification mapped CASP course offered by official training partners of CompTIA impart in-depth knowledge to use cryptography techniques, understanding their implications and the repercussions to the improper implementation.