CASE Cryptography & Data Protection Flashcards

What is the fundamental difference between hashing and encryption?

Answer: Hashing is one-way and irreversible; encryption is reversible with a key

Hashing produces a fixed-length irreversible digest for integrity verification, while encryption transforms data reversibly using a cryptographic key.

Which standard provides end-to-end encryption and digital signatures for email?

Answer: PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)

PGP provides end-to-end encryption and digital signatures for email, using a web-of-trust model for key validation.

What does Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) guarantee in TLS sessions?

Answer: Past sessions remain protected even if the server's long-term private key is later compromised

PFS ensures ephemeral session keys are generated per session and cannot be derived from a compromised long-term private key, protecting past communications.

What does PKI stand for?

Answer: Public Key Infrastructure

PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) is the framework of policies, procedures, and technologies for managing digital certificates and public-key cryptography.

Which of the following is an asymmetric encryption algorithm?

Answer: RSA

RSA is an asymmetric algorithm that uses a public-private key pair and is based on the mathematical difficulty of factoring large prime products.

What is the primary security purpose of a Hardware Security Module (HSM)?

Answer: Securely generating, storing, and managing cryptographic keys in tamper-resistant hardware

An HSM is a dedicated tamper-resistant hardware device that performs cryptographic operations and ensures keys never leave the device in plaintext.