With so much information running across networks and the internet, how can we ensure sensitive data
remains protected?
How can we make sure our employee information is safe from being stolen from hackers?
Well, encryption seems to be the key.
With encryption, we can identify and utilize different technologies to ensure our information is actually
protected, thereby facilitating that confidentiality aspect of the CIA triad.
With encryption, we are literally taking information that is readable in plain text, and we're misconfiguring
it or changing it in such a way that no one can actually read what we're processing.
That means that we're taking something that may be human readable, like a standard sentence, such
as if I was good, and changing it to something that says I h e l o the number six, you get the point.
And we're really going through and making sure that that information is not only unreadable but unchallenged,
meaning that the algorithm associated with it is made in such a way that the attacker can actually utilize
a reverse of that algorithm to decrypt the information with a key and the key generation, we're making
sure that the key is, again, something complex.
Now, a lot of times people utilize something like a password and expect that to be your key.
But in most cases, we're using a very long stretched out enumeration of that key, in most cases 128
bits, meaning we're providing a lot of zeros and ones that an attacker would have to grab that key
in order to decrypt the algorithm.
Encryption is really made up of three different portions.
It's made up of the algorithm itself, the key that you're utilizing to utilize within that algorithm.
And then the information that we are encrypting, once we've encrypted out the information or that plaintext
information, it then becomes ciphertext for the purposes of cissa, you don't need to know the basics
or the foundational level of encryption.
It's assumed that you already know that and you should study up on that aspect if you're not familiar
with it.
However, for Cisa, you really going to go into the information as part of the framework or how we're
utilizing the technology as a whole and much less about the actual encryption standardization.
With symmetric encryption, we're utilizing one key for both encrypting and decrypting the information.
That means that we're taking plaintext information and we're transferring it into ciphertext information.
And then as it's going to the other end, we're using the same key to unlock that information.
So if I have plaintext information and say I'm using something like AAS as my algorithm, then the other
side needs to also use AAS as that algorithm and then use the key that we've already generated to encrypt
it to decrypt that information.
Now that's separate from something like asymmetric encryption With asymmetric encryption, we're using
two keys.
We're using a public private key pair, meaning that the public key is then utilized to encrypt the
information.
And then a private key is used to unlock or decrypt that information.
Now there's a whole mathematical process that you would normally need to understand, and I would definitely
study up on that if you're not familiar with it.
But for the purposes of Sisa, again, we're looking at it a more framework level of how that information
is safeguarded and why we might utilize asymmetric encryption over symmetric encryption.
All of that is usually covered in Security+.
And I would go back and research that if you are not familiar with it, the basic principles that you
need to understand for Sisa, on the other hand, are the knowledge that we're using a public private
key pair, meaning that we're going to use the public key to encrypt and the private key to decrypt,
and that we're utilizing that for an out-of-band transmission, meaning that in order to get symmetric
encryption, we need to first use asymmetric encryption.
if we're talking to somebody we haven't talked to before.
So we're using.
Asymmetric encryption for that initial encryption algorithm.
And then we're going to.
Transfer that symmetric key via an asymmetric encryption algorithm.
So that way you can.
Then drop down to a symmetric level in order to be more efficient and faster with our encryption.
With PKI or public key encryption, you need to understand how the realm of.
Cryptography is utilized to communicate with servers, and how servers are then able to encrypt information
back and forth between one another using our certificate authority, our registration authority, and
our validation authority to go through that process.
Now, we could create an entire video on PKI and go through in depth with it at an hour long length
so that you really understand it.
But again, this is foundational knowledge that you should already have from Security+.
And if you're just familiar with that, you'll be fine for Cisa.
What you really need to understand when it comes to PKI is how that information is utilized from a server
capacity, meaning I'm using PKI at my server is then granted the authority to issue a certificate via
the certificate authority, and then I'm validating that certificate using the measures associated with
it.
All of this again is covered within the Security+.
So I would just get myself up to date with that if needed.
For Cisa.
We're really just going to understand that, hey, the certificate authority is what issues my certificate
for my website, and then I need to have that registration in order to communicate effectively and securely
across the internet via our server and my client.
With SSL encryption or TLS, we're talking about secure socket layer security or inspection over a transport
Layer security for Cisa.
Again, you don't need to go that much into depth with actual specifics when it comes to this process.
But what you do need to know is that we're using Transport Layer Security, usually 1.3, and that that
Transport Layer Security is encrypting our information on Https, and that we're utilizing that information
on websites, and how those communications from the client to the server are actually processed.
Again, SSL inspection and going through the process to ensure our information is secure.
Specifically on credit card websites.
So what kind of questions can you expect on Cisa, since I just told you that a lot of that foundational
information is expected to be known already, and how would that come into play for your CSA exam?
Well, you need to know certain things like, hey, how is SSL being utilized to secure information
for password generation or for how we're utilizing credit card and how we're going to secure that credit
card information from my client to my server, you need to understand how the server is going back and
forth with PKI, and how that information is being utilized in such a way that if I wanted to set up
a secure server, how that server would then get registration and how it would be utilized, Lies and
a framework model for an enterprise environment.
More than that, you need to understand how an analyst would utilize or view that information from an
encryption point for malware intrusion.
There are basic concepts that you basically need to understand when you're going through this.
But again, if you go to security+ through this, it's not a big topic within Cisa.
You just need to understand the foundations and then how it would be implemented from a security analyst
point of view, i.e. how would an attacker utilize or take advantage of that information and how we
would protect against it?
In most cases, that's going to be following the proper authorities to get that information covered
into the server and how we're utilizing it.
And in this episode we covered symmetric and asymmetric encryption.
And we found out how encryption is used both in the PKI or the public key infrastructure, and how SSL
or TLS overlays HTTP information to make it Https.
This is a very short chapter and most of it is fundamental and knowledge level.