DEV Community: Ndong Henry Ndang

Technology and security,

Ndong Henry Ndang — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:26:08 +0000

What's the role of software engineers in network security methods like cryptography?

GRYPTOGRAPHY

Ndong Henry Ndang — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 06:06:52 +0000

Introduction
Institutions, companies, the government and even individuals spent so much time, resources and money to protect their data from attackers and from being accessed by unauthorized persons which could use it for malicious purposes or alter it before it reaches its final destination. This is because as the internet continue to grow, communication and information sharing becomes very efficient and easy likewise so much data is continuously transmitted over the internet where there is little or no security hence can easily be accessed by attackers and hackers. Therefore protecting data being stored or transmitted over the internet has become a major priority for many. In this article we would take a look at cryptography, a method to ensure digital security, cryptanalysis, an attempt by hackers which study techniques used to break security systems and cryptology, the science that study network security
What is cryptography
It was the formation of the first computer network that started people thinking about the importance of securing data. This is because there was communication between computers over the open internet, that sort of network was transformative in many great ways but also made it trivially easy to access data travelling across the internet by hackers and financial services being an early use case for computers, it was very necessary to keep information transmitted over the internet secret. Due to the need to secure data transmitted over the internet, network security experts made use of cryptograghy.Gryptography comes from two word grypto a greek word that means hidden or secret and graphy which means writing. Hence cryptography is the art of secret writing. It is a method used in protecting information and communications through the use of codes, so that information sent is read and processed by the only the intended recipients. The use of codes is to make this information seem meaningless to unauthorized persons.
The process of cryptography
Providing security using cryptography involves the design and development of algorithms or a series of mathematical operations alongside keys which are then used on a readable message called plaintext(original information to be transmitted or stored) which converts it to an unreadable form called ciphertext (information that is been coded). A key is just another piece of information almost always a number that specifies how the algorithm is applied to the plaintext in order to encrypt it. This process involves two main activities: encryption and decryption. Encryption simply means making secret , therefore encryption is an integral part of cryptography. The algorithm generated along side the key are used to encrypt the data to an unreadable form. A good cryptographic system is also ensured so as to effectively manage the algorithms and keys developed for encryption and decryption. The ciphertext can be read and processed by the intended recipients by following the same algorithm and the assigned key to obtain the plaintext. This process is called decryption. it should be noted that though the algorithm can be known but without the correct key, the decryption process is very difficult and sometimes impossible.
Cryptanalysis
Building strong algorithms and cryptographic systems is primarily aimed at protecting data from attackers, cryptanalysis is rather the study of ciphertext, ciphers and cryptosystems with the aim of understanding how they work, finding and improving techniques for defeating or weakening them with the objective to gain access to the contents of encrypted data, even if the cryptographic key is unknowned
Another approach by cryptanalyst is not the study of the algorithms used but they rather engage in the study of side channel attacks, which do not target weaknesses in the cryptographic algorithms but instead exploit weaknesses in their implementation
Cryptanalysis is practiced by a broad range of organizations, including government aiming to decipher other nation’s confidential communication; companies developing security products that employ cryptanalyst to test their security features; hackers, crackers, independent researchers and academicians who search for weaknesses in cryptographic protocols and algorithms. Hence cryptographic systems should be designed such that they don’t need to be secret in order to conceal information While the objective of cryptanalysts is to find weaknesses in or otherwise defeat cryptographic algorithms, cryptanalyst research results are used by cryptographers to improve and strengthen or replace flawed algorithms. Both cryptanalysis, which is focused on deciphering encrypted data and cryptography which is focused on creating and improving encrypted ciphers and other algorithms are aspects of cryptology, the mathematical study of codes, ciphers and related algorithms.
We can therefore conclude that though cryptography is one method of securing data and information over network systems, it can never be one hundred percent efficient, either due to weaknesses in the underlying algorithms or weaknesses in it's implementation, therefore cryptographers are to continuously work hard in protecting, updating and creating new algorithms as need arises.

Report writing.

Ndong Henry Ndang — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 03:15:25 +0000

Most academic disciplines ask or require students to write reports and students are often confused with what that really means.
Likewise in business, confronted with a request to write a report to a senior manager, many people struggle to know what to write.
Confusion often arises about the writing style, what to include, the language to use and other factors.
This article aims to tackle some of these elements and provide guidelines on how to write a good report.
What is report
A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. It is written after the completion of a task in different fields which aims to
Convey information, analyze an issue or problem, and provide a recommended course of action. They present factual based information for a specified audience.
There are many types of Reports and the format or style of writing these reports may differ depending on the institution, field concern or even the professor.

As earlier said reports are of many types but for this article we would be looking at academic reports.
What is an academic report
An academic report aims to sell a product, idea or point of view (Van Emden and Easteal, 1995).It should inform, explain and persuade (Williams, 1995) by using well organized research.
These kind of reports are also used to present and discuss the results of an experiment, survey or other research methods.
Format of an academic report.
An academic report is often characterized by its layout presented in form of sections. These sections are;
Introduction
Literature Review
Methods
Results
Discussions
Conclusions
Now let's look at each section in details to find out what each section should contain and in what order.
1. Introduction
Here you present the research topic or question(problem statement)and explain why you chose to study that topic(rationale). You may also present a general overview of the work you did and your findings, expanding on these points further in the main body of the text.
2. Literature review
Here you briefly summarize work on this topic other researchers have conducted, including their findings. You can also provide any background information on the topic that your readers should have before you present your own work. Remember your readers are interested in your work, not the work of others. Focus on summarizing work that relates in some way to the work you have performed.
3. Methods
Here you describe the steps you took in your research, for example, you can describe the methodology you used to build your study, the sampling method you used to obtain survey participants and the steps you took in a scientific experiment. Make sure everything is written in past tense as you are describing something that has already been carried out.
4. Results
This sections is meant to describe your findings, for example you can provide information such as survey participant's answers, medical test results, data from scientific experiment and any statistical analysis results. You may find it useful to use figures and tables to represent these results in a easy-to-read format
5. Discussions
You will discuss the implications of your findings, explaining them and relating them to the previous research presented in your literature review. You will interpret your findings and describe how these findings answer (or don't answer) your research questions. You should also describe any limitation of your work such as sample size, missing values and discuss how you could solve these issues in your next research.
6. Conclusion
This is where you summarize your main work and findings as well as the implications of your works. You should not introduce any new material in this section. You should also provide recommendations based on your findings and discuss any future research needed.
Those are the various sections a report is to have but these may differ depending on the institution or professor supervising as earlier stated, that's why it's always advisable to check and verify clearly what's expected of you. Furthermore, reports are not based on personal ideas or opinions but are informative and fact based.