Abstract
Cryptography has fascinated the human race for years with the need for
security of information for use by corporations, governments, the military
and even personal use. This has become more apparent with the use of
computers within everyday tasks. Many security applications are now on the
market for all personal computers and nowadays most operating systems must
have security at the heart of the system. Take for example the new Microsoft
Windows systems, the older UNIX systems and even the complex SunOS versions.
The American government is highly interested in all forms of cryptography
and frequently creates laws restricting there use and export without
previous investigation by their security departments. This has placed a
large amount of capital into security and guarding secrets, which has
significantly improved the complexity and design of the ciphers.
These cryptographic systems have now become remarkable numerical recipes that
typically are just simple human methods, which have been carved into the
computer world for human application. This can and has reduced the strength
of the cipher and left the information protected by the system vulnerable and
open to attack by others. Cryptography presents a difficulty not found in
normal academic disciplines, this arises out of the fact that in the absence
of real communications requirements, it is easy to propose a system that
appears unbreakable. Exposing flaws in many academic designs is far harder
than designing them in the first place. The result is that the competitive
process, which is one strong motivation in academic research, cannot take
hold.
Project Tasks
-
Examination of the history of cryptography, cryptanalysis and a selection
of contemporary ciphers. From this information, attempt to gain an
understanding into the use of computer cryptography within academic,
government, military and commercial domains.
-
Illustrate the 'weaknesses' of older cryptographic algorithms/systems.
Utilising this knowledge create a software implementation of a more
secure cryptographic system (In a language such as 'C', Pascal, etc.).
-
Indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the new cipher algorithm, by
subjecting it to a vigorous scrutiny and testing. Show this compared
to some of the previously examined algorithms.
-
Postulate/Theorise on future cryptographic and cipher systems,
including the likely details to such systems and their conceivable
users.