Cyber Crime Rapid Research Reflection

Based on your conversations with other groups, what cybercrimes did you learn and hear about?

I learned about Russian hacking in Britain and the U.S.

How were these attacks done?

They were done by hacking and fake news.

Had you heard about these cybercrimes prior to today's discussion? 

I've heard about Russian hacks interfering with the election.

List at least 6 steps you would recommend to avoid the cypercrimes you researched as well as the cybercrimes your group researched.

Don't download suspicious attachments

Don't blindly trust emails you receive

Get a antivirus

Update your computer regularly

Don't visit suspicious websites

Have good passwords

Navajo Code Talkers Reflection

1. What was the article about?

Navajo code talkers.

2. Identify at least 3 key ideas you learned from this article

The U.S. used the Navajo language to send messages.

Navajo code was stronger and faster than conventional encryption methods.

Each marine battalion had 2 code talkers, one to receive messages and one to encrypt and send them.

Most effective for short messages

3. How does this article relate to encryption, keys, passwords, etc?  What is the connection between what you learned in this article and our current discussion?

The article was about encrypting messages using languages. It somewhat relates to our discussions in class because we have been discussing encryption, but this type of encryption is much different then what we have been doing. 

4. What is the impact of  what you learned in this article?

The impact from the article was that Navajo code talkers were able to create a unbreakable encryption for the U.S, and were able to improve conditions on reservations and awareness of Native Americans as a reward for their service.

Combination Cipher Research

1.  As detailed information as possible on its algorithm.
2. The history of this cipher
3. What you would have to do to crack the cipher
4. Provide an example of this cipher
5. Describe the process you follow to crack the code

A combination cipher is a key based cipher that uses a polybius square. The website section for combination ciphers did not exist, so I focused on the ADFGX cipher..

first, the message is put through a mixed alphabet 5x5 polybius square

    A D F G X

A b  t   a  l   p 

D d  h  o  z  k

F q  f   v  s  n

G g  j  c  u  x

X m r  e w  y

 I and J get combined to make the whole alphabet fit. Once the message is converted into a fractioned form using the square, it is put through a columnar transposition cipher. The message is written out in rows under the transposition key. The columns are then sorted by alphabetic order of the key, then sent in columns. ADFGVX is the same thing, just with a 6x6 polybius square allowing for 36 characters. 

The ADFGVX cipher was first used by the germans in World War 1. The cipher was broken by french lieutenant Georges Painvin in 1918. One trick he used was to find messages with stereotyped beginnings. These messages would fractionate the same and form similar patterns in the cipher text which corresponds to column headings in the transposition table. He also used repeating sections of ciphertext to determine the likely length of the key. Using frequency analysis, he could find pairings of letters and then with the proper pairings use frequency analysis to find the plain text. The plain text was transposed, but could easily be unscrambled.

Example:

plain text: attack at once

conversion through polybius square:

AF AD AD AF GF DX AF AD DF FX GF XF

Columnar transport using cargo as the key:

C A R G O

_________

A F A D A

D A F G F

D X A F A

D D F F X

G F X F

Sort letters:

A C G O R

_________

F A  D A A 

A D G F F

X D F A A

D D F X F

F G F     X

Collapse columns:

FAXDF ADDG DGFFF AFAX AFAFX

Computationally hard reflection

• 1) Describe what it means for a problem to be “computationally hard.”

A problem is computationally hard if a computer cannot solve it within a reasonable time

• 2) What strategies do people use to solve large computationally hard problems?

One strategy is to brute force the problem, testing every possible solution until it finds the best one.

• 3) Why are computationally hard problems important in encryption strategies?

Computationally hard problems are important because you don't want your encryption to be easily cracked. If it is computationally hard, the computer cannot decrypt it in a reasonable amount of time, making it safe.

Hotspot Reflection

1. What was the smallest set of hot spots they were able to find?

5

1. What types of heuristics did you employ to find your solution? (e.g., pick the most connected corners first)

I looked at the corners first, then moved towards the center.

1. Use this opportunity to recall this vocabulary from the previous lesson. A heuristic is just a strategy for arriving at a “pretty good” solution when there’s no obvious way to get a perfect one.

1. Are you sure this is the actual smallest? How could you be certain?

I'm pretty sure its the smallest. I haven't found any other combinations. 

Encryption Reflection 2

1. How much easier is it to crack a Caesar cipher than a random substitution cipher? Can you put a number on it?

A lot easier. All you need to do is shift the alphabet until the letters make words.

1. Was it difficult to crack a Random Substitution cipher? Did it take longer than you thought? shorter? Why?

It's difficult to crack because it requires a lot of manual analysis. It took a lot longer to crack than I thought because you had to guess what each letter is depending on the frequency. 

1. Any encryption cipher is an algorithm for transforming plaintext into ciphertext. What about the other way around? Can you write out an algorithm for cracking a Caesar cipher? What about a random substitution cipher?

You could easily create a algorithm to crack a Caesar cipher and probably a algorithm to crack a random substitution cipher with a bit more work.

1. Recall that in RFC 3271, “The Internet is for Everyone” Vint Cerf wrote the following. What did he mean by “cryptographic technology?” What does it mean to you now?

That access to encryption technology should be free to access for everyone.

Vigenere Cipher Reflection

“From what you’ve seen what are the properties of the Vigenere Cipher that make it harder to crack? In other words, if you had to crack a vigenere cipher what would you do?“

It's harder to crack because it requires a key. Keys make it so you can't just switch around the letters to find out the original message. No part of the original message should exist in the vigenere cipher's encryption unless the key is weak.

To crack a vigenere cipher, I would need to try and figure out the secret key, probably through brute forcing many different keys until I found the right one.