CASE CASE Cryptography & Data Protection 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary characteristic of symmetric encryption?
- It uses different keys for encryption and decryption
- It uses the same key for both encryption and decryption (Correct answer)
- It generates digital signatures only
- It hashes data without a key
Correct answer: It uses the same key for both encryption and decryption
Symmetric encryption uses a single shared secret key for both encrypting and decrypting data.
Question 2: Which NIST-approved algorithm is the current symmetric block cipher standard?
- RSA
- AES (Correct answer)
- ECC
- DSA
Correct answer: AES
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is the NIST-approved symmetric block cipher adopted as the US encryption standard in 2001.
Question 3: What key length does AES-256 use?
- 128 bits
- 192 bits
- 256 bits (Correct answer)
- 512 bits
Correct answer: 256 bits
AES-256 uses a 256-bit key, providing the highest security level among AES variants.
Question 4: What does TLS protect in application security?
- Data at rest on disk
- Data in transit between communicating parties (Correct answer)
- Data in use within memory
- Archived backup data
Correct answer: Data in transit between communicating parties
TLS (Transport Layer Security) encrypts data transmitted over networks to protect confidentiality and integrity in transit.
Question 5: Why is symmetric encryption preferred over asymmetric for bulk data encryption?
- It provides stronger security guarantees
- It does not require key exchange
- It is significantly faster and more efficient for large volumes (Correct answer)
- It supports digital signatures
Correct answer: It is significantly faster and more efficient for large volumes
Symmetric encryption is computationally faster than asymmetric encryption, making it suitable for encrypting large datasets.
Question 6: Which term describes inactive data stored on a disk, database, or storage medium?
- Data in transit
- Data in use
- Data at rest (Correct answer)
- Data in processing
Correct answer: Data at rest
Data at rest refers to data stored physically in any digital form such as databases, file systems, or backup media.
CASE CASE Cryptography & Data Protection 1
What is the primary characteristic of symmetric encryption?