Encryption for

Organizations
and Individuals
Basics of Contemporary and
Quantum Cryptography
—
Robert Ciesla
 Encryption for
Organizations and
Individuals
Basics of Contemporary
and Quantum Cryptography

Robert Ciesla
Encryption for Organizations and Individuals: Basics of Contemporary
and Quantum Cryptography
Robert Ciesla
HELSINKI, Finland

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-6055-5 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-6056-2

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2

Copyright © 2020 by Robert Ciesla

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or
part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way,
and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software,
or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark
symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos,
and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no
intention of infringement of the trademark.
The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if
they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not
they are subject to proprietary rights.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal
responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty,
express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
Managing Director, Apress Media LLC: Welmoed Spahr
Acquisitions Editor: Celestin Suresh John
Development Editor: Rita Fernando
Coordinating Editor: Divya Modi
Cover designed by eStudioCalamar
Cover image designed by Pixabay
Author photo © 2018 by A.C.
Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer Science Business Media New York, 233
Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax (201) 348-4505, e-mail
orders-ny@springer-sbm.com, or visit www.springeronline.com. Apress Media, LLC is a
California LLC and the sole member (owner) is Springer Science + Business Media Finance Inc
(SSBM Finance Inc). SSBM Finance Inc is a Delaware corporation.
For information on translations, please e-mail booktranslations@springernature.com; for reprint,
paperback, or audio rights, please e-mail bookpermissions@springernature.com.
Apress titles may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook
versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Print
and eBook Bulk Sales web page at http://www.apress.com/bulk-sales.
Any source code or other supplementary material referenced by the author in this book is
available to readers on GitHub via the book’s product page, located at www.apress.com/
978-1-4842-6055-5. For more detailed information, please visit http://www.apress.com/
source-code.
Printed on acid-free paper
Dedicated to curious laypeople everywhere.
Table of Contents
About the Author������������������������������������������������������������������������������xvii

About the Technical Reviewers���������������������������������������������������������xix

Introduction���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxi

Chapter 1: The First Era of Digital Encryption��������������������������������������1

Classical Cryptography�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������1
The Basics of Frequency Analysis�������������������������������������������������������������������������3
The Wonders of Steganography����������������������������������������������������������������������������5
European Developments in Cryptography�������������������������������������������������������������6
At the End of Classical Cryptography��������������������������������������������������������������7
The Digital Cryptographic Revolution��������������������������������������������������������������������8
Digital Encryption 101�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8
The Diffie–Hellman Key Exchange�������������������������������������������������������������������9
The Data Encryption Standard (DES)�������������������������������������������������������������11
In Closing������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������12

Chapter 2: A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography�����������13

RSA: The First Big Public-Key Cryptosystem������������������������������������������������������13
Generating Keys in RSA���������������������������������������������������������������������������������15
Encrypting and Decrypting in RSA�����������������������������������������������������������������16
In Through the Trapdoor��������������������������������������������������������������������������������17
The Strengths and Weaknesses of RSA���������������������������������������������������������17
The ElGamal Cryptosystem���������������������������������������������������������������������������������19

v
Table of Contents

Digital Certificates�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������19
Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Certificate Authorities (CA)��������������������������20
Web of Trust (WOT)����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������21
More on SSL/TLS������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������21
FIPS and Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA)���������������������������������������������������22
Have Some Standards for Goodness’ Sake���������������������������������������������������������22
In Closing������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������24

Chapter 3: The AES and Other Established Cryptographic

Technologies���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������25
Variables and Arrays 101������������������������������������������������������������������������������������25
Binary and Hexadecimal�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������26
Converting Decimal to Binary������������������������������������������������������������������������27
Converting Decimal to Hexadecimal��������������������������������������������������������������28
Converting Binary to Hexadecimal (and Vice Versa)��������������������������������������29
Classifying Bits����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������30
The Indomitable AES�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������31
Implementations of AES��������������������������������������������������������������������������������32
Block Sizes and Key Lengths�������������������������������������������������������������������������33
The Substitution–Permutation Network (SPN)����������������������������������������������34
Row- and Column-Major Orders��������������������������������������������������������������������34
The Steps in an AES Encryption Round���������������������������������������������������������35
Decryption in AES������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������41
Hash Values: Digital Fingerprints and Checksums����������������������������������������������41
Collisions�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������42
Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1)������������������������������������������������������������������44
Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2)������������������������������������������������������������������44
Secure Hash Algorithm 3 (SHA-3)������������������������������������������������������������������44

vi
 Table of Contents

Padding���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������45
Would You Like Some Salt with Your Data?���������������������������������������������������������45
Best Salting Practices�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������46
How About Some Pepper?�����������������������������������������������������������������������������47
Stretching Keys���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������47
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)�������������������������������������������������������������������������48
Modes of Operation���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������48
Block Ciphers and Stream Ciphers����������������������������������������������������������������49
Electronic Code Book (ECB)���������������������������������������������������������������������������49
Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)��������������������������������������������������������������������������49
Counter Mode (CTR)���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������50
In Closing������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������50
References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������51

Chapter 4: You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security��������53

Storage Devices, Sectors, and Blocks�����������������������������������������������������������������53
The Wonders of File Systems������������������������������������������������������������������������������55
Volumes and Partitions���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������57
Full-Disk Encryption (FDE)����������������������������������������������������������������������������������58
File Containers����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������58
Pre-boot Authentication (PBA)����������������������������������������������������������������������������58
Trusted Platform Module (TPM)��������������������������������������������������������������������������59
Block Cipher Operating Modes����������������������������������������������������������������������������59
Encryption in Modern Operating Systems����������������������������������������������������������60
Encryption in MacOS: FileVault and FileVault 2���������������������������������������������������61
Windows and BitLocker��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������62
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS)��������������������������������������������������������������������������64

vii
Table of Contents

Third-Party Encryption Suites�����������������������������������������������������������������������������65

BestCrypt by Jetico���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������66
DiskCryptor by ntldr���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������66
DriveCrypt by SecurStar��������������������������������������������������������������������������������67
eCryptfs���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������67
ProxyCrypt by v77������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������68
VeraCrypt by IDRIX�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������68
Tutorial Time!������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������69
In Closing������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������73

Chapter 5: Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems�����������75

Cryptographic Attack Models������������������������������������������������������������������������������76
Cryptanalysis������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������77
Linear Cryptanalysis�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������77
Differential Cryptanalysis������������������������������������������������������������������������������������77
Birthday Attack����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������78
Brute-Force Attack (BFA)�������������������������������������������������������������������������������78
Contact Analysis��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������80
Evil Maid Attack���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������80
Heuristic Attack���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������81
Man-in-the-Middle (MITM)����������������������������������������������������������������������������81
Meet-in-the-Middle���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������82
Rainbow Table Attack������������������������������������������������������������������������������������83
Replay Attack�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������84
Related Key Attack����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������85
Rubber-Hose Attack���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������85
Side Channel Attack (SCA)�����������������������������������������������������������������������������86

viii
 Table of Contents

Cyberthreats Not Specific to Cryptography���������������������������������������������������91

Malware���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������92
Trojan Horse��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������92
Keylogger������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������92
Man-in-the-Browser (MITB)��������������������������������������������������������������������������������93
Boy-in-the-Browser (BITB)����������������������������������������������������������������������������������93
Botnet�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������93
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack�������������������������������������������������94
Phishing Attack����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������94
Policeware�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������96
Rootkit�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������97
Spyware���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������98
Virus��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������99
Worm�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������99
Ransomware�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������100
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������101

Chapter 6: Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems��������������103

On Multilayer Encryption�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������104
Small vs. Big Business Readiness��������������������������������������������������������������������105
A Refresher on Network Security����������������������������������������������������������������������106
Networks and Routers���������������������������������������������������������������������������������107
IPv6��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������116
Virtual Private Network (VPN)����������������������������������������������������������������������117
Setting Up a VPN for Windows���������������������������������������������������������������������119
VPN in MacOS����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������120
VPN in Ubuntu Linux������������������������������������������������������������������������������������122
Safe Emailing with OpenPGP�����������������������������������������������������������������������123

ix
Table of Contents

Draft Begone! Securing Windows���������������������������������������������������������������������124

Windows-Security Musts�����������������������������������������������������������������������������125
A Bit More on BitLocker�������������������������������������������������������������������������������126
BIOS, UEFI, and TPM������������������������������������������������������������������������������������127
TPM 1.2 vs. 2.0��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������128
A Fresh Start: Resetting a TPM��������������������������������������������������������������������129
A Nice, Ripe Stick of USB, Please����������������������������������������������������������������130
Minding Your MacOS�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������130
MacOS-Security Musts��������������������������������������������������������������������������������131
T2, Judgment Chip: TPM, Apple Style����������������������������������������������������������133
T2 Maintenance 101������������������������������������������������������������������������������������135
Security Software for Mac���������������������������������������������������������������������������136
Staying Safer in Linux���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������138
CryFS�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������138
FireStarter���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������139
You vs. Malware������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������140
Avast Antivirus by Avast�������������������������������������������������������������������������������140
Avira Antivirus by Avira Operations GmbH & Co�������������������������������������������142
Bitdefender Antivirus�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������144
SpyBot – Search and Destroy by Safer-­Networking Ltd������������������������������145
TDSS Killer and Virus Removal Tool 2015 by Kaspersky Lab�����������������������146
Stinger by McAfee���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������147
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������148
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������148

x
 Table of Contents

Chapter 7: Prohibitions and Legal Issues�����������������������������������������149

Missiles, Tanks, and Encryption������������������������������������������������������������������������150
EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)����������������������������������������������151
Cryptography in the United States��������������������������������������������������������������������152
Encrypted and Crossing the Border������������������������������������������������������������������153
Key Disclosure Laws in the United States���������������������������������������������������������154
Key Disclosure Laws in Canada, Europe, and Oceania�������������������������������������154
Key Disclosure Laws in Africa���������������������������������������������������������������������������157
World’s Toughest Key Disclosure Laws�������������������������������������������������������������158
Criticism and Blowback������������������������������������������������������������������������������������159
The Wassenaar Arrangement����������������������������������������������������������������������������160
EU Dual-Use Controls����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������160
The Import of Cryptography������������������������������������������������������������������������������161
Corporate Data Security Laws��������������������������������������������������������������������������165
The FTC Safeguards Rule����������������������������������������������������������������������������166
More on Privacy Laws in the United States������������������������������������������������������168
A Few Words on CISPA��������������������������������������������������������������������������������169
State-Level Privacy Legislation�������������������������������������������������������������������������169
A Primer on US Legal Terms������������������������������������������������������������������������������171
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������173

Chapter 8: Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm�����������������175

Bits vs. Qubits���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������175
Into the Bloch Sphere����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������176
Six Ways Qubits Will Change Our World������������������������������������������������������������179
Cryptography�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������179
Medicine������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������180
Crime and Finance��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������181

xi
Table of Contents

Entertainment����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������183
Manufacturing���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������183
World Politics�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������184
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������185
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������185

Chapter 9: The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics�����������������187

A Few Words on Classical Mechanics���������������������������������������������������������������187
Introducing Modern Physics�����������������������������������������������������������������������������189
Atoms and Sub-atomic Particles�����������������������������������������������������������������191
Black Holes and Their Applications�������������������������������������������������������������������192
The Quiet Region and the Ergosphere���������������������������������������������������������194
The Event Horizon (No, Not the 1990s Movie)���������������������������������������������195
Singularity Speculation�������������������������������������������������������������������������������195
The Standard Model������������������������������������������������������������������������������������196
A Brief History of the Higgs Boson��������������������������������������������������������������198
More Quantum Magic����������������������������������������������������������������������������������199
The Uncertainty Principle����������������������������������������������������������������������������������199
Double-Slit Experiments: The Wave–Particle Duality����������������������������������������199
Waves, Phase, and Quantum Coherence/Decoherence�������������������������������������201
The Planck Constant and Planck Units�������������������������������������������������������������202
The Planck Constant�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������203
I. Planck Length������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������203
II. Planck Time���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������204
III. Planck Temperature�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������204
IV. Planck Charge����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������205
V. Planck Mass��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������205
Quantum Entanglement������������������������������������������������������������������������������������205

xii
 Table of Contents

And Now We Need to Talk About Cats���������������������������������������������������������������206

In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������206
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������207

Chapter 10: Quantum Information Science 101��������������������������������209

Logic Gates�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������209
Quantum Computer Says No: Error Correction��������������������������������������������������212
Four Approaches to Quantum Computing���������������������������������������������������������215
I. Quantum Gate Array (Quantum Circuit)����������������������������������������������������������215
Universal Quantum Gates����������������������������������������������������������������������������������217
Unitary and Permutation Matrices��������������������������������������������������������������������218
All Things Eigen�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������218
Pauli Gates��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������220
The Hadamard Gate������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������220
The Swap Gates������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������221
Toffoli and Fredkin Gates����������������������������������������������������������������������������������222
II. The Topological Quantum Computer�������������������������������������������������������������223
III. The Adiabatic Quantum Computer (AQC)������������������������������������������������������224
IV. One-Way Quantum Computer�����������������������������������������������������������������������225
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������225
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������226

Chapter 11: Quantum Cryptography�������������������������������������������������227

On Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)������������������������������������������������������������������227
Let’s Go with Light��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������228
BB84�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������228
B92��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������231
The Six-State Protocol (SSP)�����������������������������������������������������������������������������231

xiii
Table of Contents

The Ekert Protocol (E91)�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������232

Continuous-Variable (CV) Protocols������������������������������������������������������������������232
Shor’s (Factoring) Algorithm�����������������������������������������������������������������������������232
Quantum Coin Flipping��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������233
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������233
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������234

Chapter 12: Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack�����������������������235

Breaking QKD����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������235
Photon Number Splitting (PNS)�������������������������������������������������������������������������236
Denial of Service�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������237
Trojan Horse������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������237
Intercept and Resend (IR)����������������������������������������������������������������������������������237
Thermal Blinding Attack������������������������������������������������������������������������������������238
Man in the Middle���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������238
The Hardware of QKD����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������240
Component Breakdown�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������240
Field Programmable Array Gate (FPGA)�������������������������������������������������������������241
Optical Attenuator, Isolator, and Narrow Band Pass Filter���������������������������������242
Laser Diode, Intensity Modulator, and Phase Modulator�����������������������������������242
Beam Splitter and Polarizing Beam Splitter������������������������������������������������������242
Monitoring Detector������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������243
Delay Line���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������243
Electronic Polarization Controller����������������������������������������������������������������243
Fiber Length Stretcher��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������243
Avalanche Photodiodes and Self-­Differencing Circuits������������������������������������244
The Externals�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������244

xiv
 Table of Contents

In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������245
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������245

Chapter 13: Implementations of QKD�����������������������������������������������247

The DARPA Quantum Network��������������������������������������������������������������������������247
Secure Communication Based on Quantum Cryptography (SECOQC)���������248
Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS)������������������������������������������������251
SwissQuantum��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������252
Tokyo QKD Network������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������253
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������255
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������256

Chapter 14: Post-Quantum Cryptography�����������������������������������������257

Post-Quantum Cryptography�����������������������������������������������������������������������������257
Hash-Based Cryptography��������������������������������������������������������������������������������258
Code-Based Cryptography��������������������������������������������������������������������������������261
Multivariate Cryptography���������������������������������������������������������������������������������262
Lattice-Based Cryptography�����������������������������������������������������������������������������263
Homomorphic Encryption���������������������������������������������������������������������������������266
Homomorphic Algorithms���������������������������������������������������������������������������������268
Video Gaming for Homomorphism��������������������������������������������������������������������269
Homomorphism for Coders�������������������������������������������������������������������������������270
Standardizing PQC��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������270
Zero-Knowledge Proof in PQC���������������������������������������������������������������������������271
Commitment Schemes��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������272
In Closing����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������273
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������274

Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������277

xv
About the Author
Robert Ciesla is a freelance writer from
Helsinki, Finland. He has worked on many
video games on several platforms. He is the
author of Game Development with Ren'Py
(2019) and Mostly Codeless Game Development
(2017). Ever since finishing A Brief History of
Time by Stephen Hawking in middle school,
Robert has been fascinated by the world of
quantum mechanics. Robert's bachelor's
thesis in journalism took on some questions
on how to popularize the core concepts of
quantum physics and related fields. He has devoured most relevant books
in the field since and continues to explore this area of reality.

xvii
About the Technical Reviewers
Paul Love is the Chief Information Security
and Privacy Officer at a financial services
organization and has been in the information
security field for almost 30 years. He has
held information security positions at many
major organizations including Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac),
Ernst & Young, Microsoft, Schlumberger, Ally
Financial, and Fifth Third Bank. Paul started
his information security career when he joined
the United States Marine Corps, where he
served for eight years, eventually achieving the
rank of Sergeant.
Paul holds a Master of Science in Network Security, has authored/
co-authored nine books on Information Security and Unix/Linux, and
has been the technical editor of ten books on Linux and Unix. Paul
holds multiple information security and privacy certifications, including
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified
Information System Auditor (CISA), and Certified Information Security
Privacy Manager (CISM); multiple privacy certifications including
Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States/Europe/Canada
(CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPP/C); as well as other technical and professional
certifications.

xix
About the Technical Reviewers

Sai Matam is a software architect with over

20 years of diverse experience in software. He
has a Bachelor of Engineering from Osmania
University. His interests include low latency,
highly scalable systems, algorithms, Java,
cloud, and Go programming language.

Astha Keshariya, PhD, MSC (Honors), MBA,

has consulted and contributed to several
commercial and academic organizations in the
field of applied cryptography and information
security for over 16 years.

xx
Introduction
Cryptography may or may not sound like the sexiest of topics. However,
it's essential to nearly everyone plugged into the planetwide community
of the Internet. Whether you're working for Area 52 with a Top Secret
clearance or shopping online for some swanky items, many elements
of cryptography will be present. They not only take the form of virtually
unbreakable databases but also (barely noticeable) digital certificates,
passwords, PIN codes, and secured email.
As impressive as current-day cryptography is in its security and
computational effectiveness, what's behind the corner is even more so.
Quantum computing is well on its way. We can expect our world to be
profoundly impacted by this paradigm on several levels.
Ultimately, encryption and secrecy are not new phenomena. They
have been with us since the earliest days of recorded history, only in
more primitive ways. The continuing need for concealing information
tells us something about the world at large. I hope this book offers you an
understanding of just how big of a deal cryptography actually is.
Encryption for Organizations and Individuals is for the curious
layperson. Equations are therefore kept to a minimum. This book
is roughly divided into two parts: first, we explore contemporary
cryptography, and then we probe into its quantum sibling. I hope my book
equips you with the tools you need to take on the quantum computing
revolution with some confidence.

xxi
CHAPTER 1

The First Era of Digital

Encryption
You’re probably used to entering passwords into devices by now; it’s a part
of everyday life, like locking and unlocking one’s front door. From email
services to mobile devices, we all guard our privacy to a varying extent in
the digital realm. And that’s exactly how it should be. In this chapter, we’ll
take a quick look at modern-era digital encryption. But first, we’ll revisit
some of the most game-changing moments in the historical context of all
things cryptographic, as you may not be familiar with the incredibly long
history of the science.

C
 lassical Cryptography
Let’s first define our main term. The word cryptography refers to the
science of transmitting messages which remain undecipherable to
often malicious third parties. It comes from the ancient Greek words of
kryptos, which stands for hidden, and graphein, which means “to write.”
Cryptography is valued by warring tribes, governments, and individuals
alike; as long as there remains the need for any kind of political action or
activism, cryptography will continue to thrive.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 1

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_1
Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

There are two other terms of relevance you should become familiar
with at this point: plaintext and ciphertext. The former refers simply to an
unencrypted message (e.g., “Hello! Apress is the best publisher!”), while
the latter covers encrypted messages, which appear nonsensical to those
not in possession of the decryption key(s).
Now, the first recorded instance of hidden messages dates back
to ancient Egypt, 1900 BC. A series of nonstandard hieroglyphs (i.e.,
characters in the Egyptian writing system) were discovered carved into
the walls of a tomb. Experts still argue whether these messages contain
any pertinent information or not; they may have been created with the
intention to amuse or confuse.
Clay tablets from Mesopotamia (its area corresponding with most
of modern Iraq, Kuwait, and some parts of Syria) indicate attempts at
concealing more “serious” information around 1500 BC. Many of the
tablets were found to be encrypted cooking notes. These are clearly
important state secrets and should never fall in the wrong hands: empires
have been known to collapse for less!
The mighty Romans of ancient times, too, were known to utilize
cryptography, creating a device called Caesar’s cipher. It simply involves
shifting the alphabet to a degree as agreed upon by two parties (e.g., using
a right shift of two letters so that A becomes C and C becomes E). Although
hardly representing the state of the art in encryption in 2020, many a
private communique was dispatched between Julius Caesar (100 BC–44
BC) and his allies using this technique. It didn’t hurt, of course, that most
of his enemies were illiterate.
In medieval times, the state of the art in cryptography was to be found
among the Arab people. A grammarian from Basra, Iraq, Al-Khalil (717–
786 AD), wrote a seminal work on hidden messages, entitled The Book of
Cryptographic Messages. His book is famous for its use of permutations
and combinations to list all possible Arabic words with and without
vowels.

2
 Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

Al-Khalil’s work inspired another monumental book in the field, The

Manuscript for the Deciphering of Cryptographic Messages written by one
Al-Kindi (801–873 AD), a mathematician and astronomer from Kufa, Iraq.
His work, released around the year 800, detailed most likely for the first
time ever the concept of frequency analysis, which is still an important
concept in cryptography. We will learn more of the basics of Al-Kindi’s
work in the next section.

The Basics of Frequency Analysis

Frequency analysis is the study of letters contained in an encrypted
message in order to reveal at least parts of the plaintext message. The
rest should be subject to common sense and basic grammar. Now, most
languages have certain letters appearing at a specific frequency. For
example, in the English language, the most common letters are E, T, and
A. In contrast, Q, X, and Z are not found in English sentences very often.
In a historical context, the inventor of Morse code, Samuel Morse (1791–
1872), did his part to discover which letters of the alphabet are the most
common in English in order to assign to them the most simple codes.
Let’s assume we are to decrypt a message which, we’re told, only
contains a short English sentence. Knowing this, we may statistically
determine some parts of the message and deduce the rest, if we’re lucky.
The first step is count the times a letter appears in an encrypted message.
Now, take a look at the ciphertext we are to decrypt:

KZ GZK ZKGR KKR

Which is the most frequent letter in the example? That would be K with
five occurrences. The most common letter was E, right? Changing the K’s
to E’s results in the following:

EZ GZE ZEGR EER

3
Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

Not much help you may think. However, let’s keep at it. The second
most frequent letter here is Z with three occurrences. As for the English
language, the second used letter is T. Let’s go with that.

ET GTE TEGR EER

The third most frequent letters here are G and R, both with two
occurrences of each. As for the English language, the third used letter is
usually A, I, N, O, or S. Let’s go with S first and replace the message’s G’s
with it.

ET STE TESR EER

Our intuition speaks: that can’t be right. After careful consideration

(and possibly trying all other statistically significant choices of O, N, and I,
which got us nowhere), we decided to replace the G’s with A’s instead.

ET ATE TEAR EER

Now we see something vaguely resembling English. Let’s use our

incredible powers of deduction and take a wild guess. What if R equals L?

ET ATE TEAL EEL

Finally, some proper English. Oh, those pesky extraterrestrials

and their hunger for our majestic (and, let’s face it, delicious)
Anguilliformes! This has been a simple demonstration of frequency
analysis. Using a combination of statistical evaluation and grammatical
sense, especially with intelligence concerning the message’s language
issued beforehand, one may be able to decrypt some of the simpler
ciphertexts, all on paper.
Mind you, we could’ve also deciphered the message even more easily
using Caesar’s cipher mentioned earlier in the chapter. By switching the
alphabet six times to the right (i.e., A equals G, C equals I), we would’ve
achieved the same result.

4
 Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

It should be noted that an Egyptian mathematician Al-Qalqashandi

(1355–1418) first described the polyalphabetic system which greatly
undermined the effectiveness of classical frequency analysis. The
polyalphabetic system refers to the method of using multiple letters/
symbols per alphabet in a plaintext message to cause further confusion
during the decryption process.

The Wonders of Steganography

Steganography is the technique of hiding a message or image within
another message or image. Again, the word steganography comes from
Greek, consisting of steganos, meaning concealed, and graphe, meaning
writing. Although the term was first used by Johannes Trithemius (1462–
1516), an early German cryptographer and Benedictine Abbot, it’s very
likely steganography has been around for much longer. Written in 1499,
Trithemius’ seminal three-volume work Steganographia was released
much later in 1606. While on the surface it seemed to deal with magic
and spirits, it was possibly written to conceal and demonstrate the use of
cryptographic methods. Scholars still hold differing views on the matter.
Interestingly, British philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon (1561–
1626) developed a robust steganographic system all the way back in 1605;
it’s known as the Baconian cipher. This consists of hiding messages not
via the content of text, but through its presentation (i.e., typefaces). Bacon
visually detailed his steganographic method in his monumental 1623
philosophical work De Augmentis Scientiarum.
In practice, classical steganography consists of methods such as
invisible ink and the correct interpretation of typefaces to deliver messages
to those aware of such content. Modern methods include hiding messages
in image files and practically any type of file; digital devices and formats
lend themselves well to these techniques. One could utilize audio and

5
Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

video as well in this context. Digital steganography took off in the mid-­
1980s and won’t be an abandoned practice anytime soon. State secrets and
classified military intelligence will continue to be distributed using this
method for the unforeseeable future.

European Developments in Cryptography

Europe, too, made great contributions to the science of cryptography.
Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) was an Italian architect and author who
devised a cryptographic tool of his own, known as the Alberti disk. The
device uses polyalphabetics, as originally introduced by Al-Qalqashandi,
in the form of two connected disks each divided into 24 cells. The disk was
impossible to break without knowing its inner workings. At the time, it was
a revolutionary piece of applied cryptography.
Professor Auguste Kerckhoffs (1835–1903) from the Netherlands
published two articles in 1883 that are considered classics in the field.
His work entitled “Military Cryptography” was featured in the Journal of
Military Science in France. Kerckhoffs’s articles detailed six principles of
practical cipher design, which are still quite relevant today. They are as
follows:

1. The system should be, if not theoretically

unbreakable, unbreakable in practice.

2. The design of a system should not require secrecy,

and compromise of the system should not
inconvenience the correspondents.

3. The key should be memorable without notes and

should be easily changeable.

4. The cryptograms should be transmittable by

telegraph.

6
 Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

5. The apparatus or documents should be portable

and operable by a single person.

6. The system should be easy, neither requiring

knowledge of a long list of rules nor involving
mental strain.

Principle number 2 is of particular relevance; it’s also referred to

as Kerckhoffs’s law or Kerckhoffs’s axiom. It states that a cryptosystem
should never be vulnerable even if all facets about said system, apart
from the decryption key, are public. Although still popular among some
government agencies, security by obscurity (STO) is mostly an obsolete
approach among cryptographers of today. Obscurity shouldn’t be
considered a factor at all when designing secure systems. If government
civil servants defect, for example, your system eventually becomes
compromised. STO provides, at best, a layer of pseudo-security.
Some of Kerckhoffs’s principles are no longer valid, as computers
have become advanced enough to handle complex calculations in mere
milliseconds. Also, not many people use telegraphs as of 2020 (although a
company called iTelegram has been founded).

At the End of Classical Cryptography

The era and techniques described in the previous sections form a concept
called classical cryptography. As you probably noticed, it was mostly based
on various aspects of linguistics and physical/visual methods. The type of
information classical cryptography has an effect on is limited. But we’re
now moving on to the modern era of all things cryptographic. This is where
it gets somewhat complicated – and exciting.

7
Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

The Digital Cryptographic Revolution

Like many other areas of modern life, computers revolutionized
cryptography. In fact, they offered unforeseen possibilities that offered
completely secure messaging, a feat almost impossible using traditional
methods. Eventually, cryptography was combined with the cutting edge of
sciences, including quantum physics. But we’re not going there yet; let’s
have a review of what got us there first.
In 1943 during World War II, British cryptography experts (sometimes
called “codebreakers”) created the first programmable digital computer,
the Colossus. It was primarily devised to intercept German military
intelligence, but it also helped usher in a new era in electronics. Its
German counterpart was the Lorenz cipher, a fearsome piece of machinery
with a near-perfect track record of encrypting intelligence. However,
due to human error, the Lorenz cipher’s way of operating was ultimately
figured out by the British without ever actually getting their hands on
one. Colossus itself was a state secret up until the mid-1970s, with many
of the units having been destroyed in the previous decade by the British
government.
Strangely, it was only in the 1970s when academia started taking
cryptography seriously en masse. Corporations soon picked up the trend;
IBM was among the first major companies to develop cryptographic
systems and techniques. Their work had a big impact on the US
government’s data protection policies, for one.

Digital Encryption 101

Encryption in the digital realm consists of basically three things: an
encryption method, an encryption key, and a decryption key. An encryption
method is the mathematical means of how a message or file is scrambled to
appear completely random to a third party. Only the party with a decryption
key (i.e., a password) can access the plaintext contents of the file.

8
 Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

Now, there are two widely used encryption approaches in the world
today (not to be confused with encryption algorithms, which are a separate
concept): symmetric and asymmetric (i.e., public-key cryptography). The
former uses a single key for both encryption and decryption of the data.
The latter uses two separate keys: one public and one private. With this
asymmetric approach, the public key is used to encrypt data, while the
private key is used for decryption. In a classic example, Bob uses Alice’s
public key to encrypt some data. Upon receiving it, Alice then uses her
private key to decrypt the contents.
Under most circumstances, it’s impossible to discover the private key
using the public key. Symmetric cryptography is known to be speedier if
dealing with large quantities of data. However, the asymmetric approach
provides additional security.
Now, a bit is the smallest unit of measurement in data sciences,
being represented by either one or zero. The strength of an encryption
standard is usually apparent in the amount of bits it carries. There are
encryption standards ranging from 40 to 256 bits and more. A couple of
these will be discussed next with more elaboration on them coming up
later in the book.

The Diffie–Hellman Key Exchange

One of the earliest public-key encryption protocols was the Diffie–
Hellman, named after cryptologists Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman.
This protocol allows for two parties without any prior knowledge of one
another to create a shared secret key/password. The process is done over
an insecure channel. Once the shared key is formed, any communications
can be secured with it in a separate encryption method. The Diffie–
Hellman approach was published in 1976.

9
Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

Let’s go through a simplified Diffie–Hellman exchange. In real-life

situations, the numbers would have to be much larger to provide an
acceptable degree of security. First, Alice and Bob decide on a modulus (p)
and the base (g). Usually the modulus (p) is a large prime number, while
the base (g) is kept small to keep things simple.
We’ll pick 19 for the modulus and 6 for the base. Next Alice and Bob
choose their secret numbers. Let’s say Alice (a) picks 5 and Bob (b) picks 2.
The capital A represents the result Alice will send to Bob. Note: Modulo is
simply the operation of finding the remainder after division of a number by
another one.

a = 5 (Alice’s choice)

A = ga mod p

= 65 mod 19 = 5

b = 2 (Bob’s choice)

B = gb mod p

= 62 mod 19 = 17

Now we calculate Alice’s and Bob’s secret keys in public without a care
in the world:
secretkeya = B a mod p = 175 mod 19 = 6

secretkeyb = A B mod p = 52 mod 19 = 6

If both secret keys turn out identical, and they do, the key exchange
has been successful. The shared secret number in our example turns out to
be 6, which is also the base number. This is not always the case. Rather it’s
due to us using such small numbers in our example.

10
 Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

The Data Encryption Standard (DES)

The fruit of the interest of IBM in cryptography turned out to be the
Data Encryption Standard (DES). This is a flawed but influential
encryption symmetric method/algorithm. Released in 1977, the standard
initially provided adequate encryption of data and protection against
cryptographic attacks, such as brute-force attacks which consist of a
system/actor trying to enter every single password possible. However,
as of 1998, DES was compromised within three days using a computer
network created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As of late,
due to the increase in computing power, systems encrypted using DES can
be compromised within 23 hours. Therefore, the standard is obsolete. You
may have noticed an option in some older routers/modems, for example,
to secure your wireless Internet connection using DES. Please do not.
DES, despite all the brouhaha back in the day, was only 56-bit long. So
it offers 72,057,594,037,927,936 (i.e., 256) permutations of passwords, which
is also known as key space. By today’s standards, that’s not impressive. Any
128-bit (2128) encryption method, on the other hand, provides a key space
of 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 300 decillion)
permutations. Now we’re talking.
There were corrective measures applied on DES, however. In 1984, a
standard called DESX was introduced by MIT Professor Ron Rivest. His
standard added two auxiliary keys to the single 56-bit one found in the
original DES, each 64-bit wide. In theory this results in a key space of 184
bits; in practice it’s somewhere between 88 and 119 bits. DESX never really
took off.
In 1995, an algorithm called Triple DES (also stylized as 3DES) was
released. It consists of three rounds of encryption applied to each data
block, hence its name. Despite a theoretical key space of 168 bits, which
sounds rather impressive, the standard has an effective key space of 112
bits. While better than the original algorithm, Triple DES is still subpar
and best avoided. Also, the method is quite slow compared to some of

11
Chapter 1 The First Era of Digital Encryption

the newer algorithms. Microsoft, for one, did wisely write off Triple DES
from its Office 365 platform in 2019. Unfortunately, it does remain in use
in some electronic payment services, including the smart payment card
varieties of Visa and Mastercard as of 2020.

In Closing
After reading this chapter, you should have an understanding on the
history of cryptography and how it relates to current-day electronics. You
absorbed information on the following:

• A concise history of cryptography

• Elementary frequency analysis

• The beginning stages of digital cryptography

• The basics of current-day encryption technologies

In the next chapter, we’ll begin to explore the world of digital

encryption in full force. In particular, you’ll learn about the venerated RSA
algorithm.

12
CHAPTER 2

A Medium-Length
History of Digital
Cryptography
Having taken a look at the basics of digital cryptography in the previous
chapter, we’ll now move on to some specifics of the topic. We’ll take
a gander at technology, which is both historically significant and still
relevant in the field today. We’ll also cover some important related
standards organizations and unlock several concepts crucial in the world
of cryptography.

RSA: The First Big Public-Key Cryptosystem

In the previous chapter, we discussed the first federally approved
symmetric cryptosystem, the Data Encryption Standard (DES) of 1977.
You probably also remember the concept of public key (i.e., asymmetric)
cryptosystems from said chapter. We’ll now discuss perhaps the greatest
asymmetric system of them all: the mighty RSA.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 13

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_2
Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

Now, the RSA algorithm was first presented to the public in 1978 and it
consisted of all the factors public-key cryptosystems of today possess. RSA
stands for Rivest–Shamir–Adleman, based on the three inventors behind
it. The trio went on to win the prized ACM Turing Award for computer
science in 2002. The other two scientists, Ron Rivest and Adi Shamir,
have enjoyed long and successful careers in fields such as cryptography
and mathematics. Since 2000, RSA has been classified as patent-free. The
algorithm is used in several Internet-related technologies, including TLS
(transport data security) (i.e., online URLs that begin with https://) and
PGP-based email encryption.
The RSA algorithm derives a pair of keys based on two large prime
numbers. One of these keys represents the public key, while the other
is kept private. One cannot derive the private key from the public key.
However, if the two originally used prime numbers are known to a
malicious actor, the private key can be computed, hence making the
encryption unsafe.
As for prime numbers, they are natural numbers greater than ones
(1) that can’t be generated by the multiplication of two smaller natural
numbers. The following are all prime numbers: 5, 7, 17, and 23. The
following are not: 4, 8, and 10. As with many things in mathematics, there
are an infinite number of prime numbers out there in the universe(s). As of
2019, the largest known prime number is 24,862,048 digits long. Yes, that’s
only the amount of digits, not the number itself. Note: Nonprime numbers
(e.g., 4, 8, 10) are referred to as composite numbers.
Relatively prime numbers (i.e., coprimes) also exist; these are groups
of numbers that have a greatest common divisor of 1. For example, 3 and
4 are a duo of relatively prime numbers, but 2 and 4 aren’t. Coprimes are
actually a big deal in RSA as you will learn next.

14
 Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

Generating Keys in RSA

The following are the main phases in RSA key generation for both the
public and private keys. Many algorithms have similar approaches to
that of RSA on a theoretical level. However, for the purposes of this book,
we’ll examine RSA’s inner workings only to a degree. You don’t have to
understand much of the following to utilize encryption in your personal or
professional life, but it might come in handy.

1. First, two preferably large prime numbers are

chosen at random and similar size in their number
of bits. Ours won’t be that large for the sake of
simplicity. These prime numbers are usually labeled
p and q. Let’s say p = 5 and q = 17.

2. p and q are then multiplied and stored in variable

n (n=pq). n is one half of the public key. In our
example, n = 85. n should also be of the chosen bit
length, for example, 1024 bits in size with p and q at
512 bits in length. Small sizes, that is, 256 bits or less,
aren’t considered secure enough. Again, our simple
example will overlook this requirement.

3. Next, we summon the so-called Euler’s phi function

(symbolized with ϕ):

ϕ(n)=(p -1) * (q – 1) or in the case of our chosen

numbers: (5 – 1) * (17 – 1) = 64

4. To calculate the public key, we will choose a value

for a new variable k, so that k and ϕ(n) from the
previous phase don’t share any factors besides 1.
Popular choices for k include the prime numbers 17,
257, and 65537; let’s pick the biggest number of the
bunch. We can denote this function in the following

15
Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

manner: gcd(k, ϕ(n)) or in the case of our example

gcd(65537, 64). gcd stands for greatest common
divisor and it’s used to check for coprimes. Again,
if we get a result of 1 (and we do), all is well. Now
(n, k) is your full public key.

5. To generate the private key we’ll be storing in

a variable named d, we execute the extended
Euclidean algorithm like this: d=(1/k)modϕ. Note:
1/k is a modular multiplicative inverse of d, not a
literal division.

The greatest common divisor is best derived using the basic Euclidean
algorithm. This method refers to the factorizing of the two numbers in
question and the multiplication of their common factors.
Here’s another example of the basic Euclidean algorithm as in how to
count the greatest common divisor. Let’s have some jolly good fun with
two composite numbers. The number 64 can be factored like this: 2 x 2 x
2 x 2 x 2 x 2. The other number we’ll pick, 1096, can be factored like so: 2 x
2 x 2 x 137. These numbers have three common factors (2 x 2 x 2). We can
discard the rest. Therefore, the gcd for this pair is 8, which is denoted as
follows:
gcd(64, 1096) = 8.

Encrypting and Decrypting in RSA

Let’s say Alice gives her public key (consisting of variables n and e as per
the previous section) to Bob, who is eager to send a message, denoted by
variable m, back to Alice. First, Bob inserts a touch of gibberish into m by
running it through a padding scheme. This is standard practice in RSA to
confuse any potential attackers (which we will tackle later in the book).
Then, he creates the encrypted message c (referring to ciphertext) by
calculating the following: c=me mod n.

16
 Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

Now, having just received c from our friend Bob, and wanting to
transform it into plaintext m, Alice will compute the following sequence:
m=cd mod n. Alice simply utilized her private key consisting of variables
d and n to achieve this. The decrypted message will be padded as per
the padding scheme implemented prior to encryption, so it needs to be
unpadded before plaintext m is usable.

In Through the Trapdoor

Another important addition to your cryptographic vocabulary is the
concept of trapdoors. These refer to mathematical functions that are easy
to compute in forward direction, but impossible to reverse; in our context
we’re usually dealing with factorization problems. Trapdoor functions
were coined and introduced in the 1970s by mathematicians Diffie,
Hellman, and Merkle. They are a core component of many public-key
cryptosystems, including the RSA algorithm.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of RSA

As previously mentioned, the use of RSA is extremely widespread with the
majority of Internet-related security certificates (i.e., those signed with
RSA keys). Standardized for online use in 1994, RSA is a mature technology
with plenty of research behind it; any design flaws in the system have been
addressed a while ago.
However, the RSA Problem has been formulated; this refers to the
possibility of decrypting RSA ciphertexts using only the public key.
For encrypted data with key sizes of 1024 bits or more, no solution
to the problem exists as of 2020: such data is quite safe. However,
datasets encrypted with lower key sizes may turn out to be vulnerable.
RSA relies on random number generators (RNGs) in its key/password

17
Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

generation. RNGs in the context of RSA are programs that create prime
numbers that are supposedly impossible to guess at a later stage. This
is not the case, at least not 100% of the time, and has proven to be a
security issue for RSA, too.
Not many varieties of RNGs are in use and some predictability in them
has been discovered. Two groups of researchers from Europe and the
United States made a startling discovery in 2012: some 27,000 public RSA
keys offered no security. The researchers used several databases of these
keys, including those found at Michigan Institute of Technology (MIT) as
well as those provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). They
examined a total of 7.1 million public keys. However, it’s safe to say RSA
is still a safe cryptosystem at least over 99% of the time; it hasn’t been
anywhere near fully compromised. There are no practical reasons to
abandon it anytime soon.
Some of the issues with RSA’s security are actually found in the
hardware sector. A select few manufacturers of Internet-related hardware,
like routers and game consoles, seem to prefer flawed RNG software in
their products due to cost-related reasons. These devices are supposed to
provide encrypted wireless connections and/or other forms of security, so
they, too, rely on random number generators, which may or may not be
always up to the task.
Also, although very robust in security, RSA is a relatively slow method
for encryption of larger datasets. In fact, it’s often used simply to encrypt
passwords used in faster, symmetric algorithms such as the Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES) described in Chapter 3. For this purpose, at
least even RSA is perfectly suited for in 2020 and beyond. This approach is
sometimes referred to as hybrid cryptography.

18
 Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

The ElGamal Cryptosystem

Continuing our historical cryptographic review, we’re now moving onto
Miami Vice, large haircuts, and padded shoulders; we’re in the 1980s.
Egyptian cryptographer Taher Elgamal presented his own take on public-­
key cryptosystems in 1985. The system was a success and is still used in
many modern security software suites, like the GNU Privacy Guard and
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). These two suites and more will be discussed in
depth later in the book.
The ElGamal encryption method is based on the difficulty of
discovering a discrete logarithm in a cyclic group. A cyclic group (G) is
a set created from a single element, containing element g and a single
associative binary operator. All elements in these types of groups can
be obtained by applying the group’s binary operation to g or its inverse.
The ElGamal cryptosystem is partially based on the Diffie–Hoffman key
exchange method (DH) which was explained in Chapter 1.
Like RSA, ElGamal is somewhat slow in its operation and is often used
to encrypt the keys/passwords of symmetric cryptosystems, which usually
work faster. ElGamal is therefore often used in tandem with modern
symmetric algorithms like the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

D
 igital Certificates
Certificates are basically messages with the public key and identity of some
entity. This message is digitally signed by some other entity, such as a
certificate authority. Because the message is signed, it remains unalterable.
This very property ties a public key to an identity. Proper authentication
of the owner of a public key is of paramount importance. Literally
anyone can generate public keys and publish them under any name they
desire. Without proper measures, an impersonator can access encrypted

19
Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

messages meant to be served to any individual. Digital certificates and

public-key infrastructures, introduced in the next section, were created to
address this issue.

 ublic-Key Infrastructure (PKI)

P
and Certificate Authorities (CA)
An important security measure in asymmetrical encryption is called public-
key infrastructure. This refers to the practice of having specific policies and
procedures for the management of digital certificates and public keys.
In a PKI system, public keys are tied to specific entities (i.e., individuals
and businesses). This process is done by an actor known as a certificate
authority (CA). As mentioned before in this chapter, the most common
use of PKI is found in an online environment in the form of SSL/TLS
certification (i.e., the technology which secures websites).
So, a CA simply issues certificates that contain the public key and the
owner’s identity. An appropriate private key isn’t publicly available, but
instead kept hidden by the user who created the pair of keys in the first place.
In general, digital certificates are valid for a few years at a time. Certificate
authorities’ public keys are often hard-coded into operating systems or
browsers to make tampering with them very difficult. Upon receiving one of
these digital certificates, we can be quite sure they are authentic.
Most CAs are operating on a purely national level, due to local laws
affecting these procedures. An exception to this is Let’s Encrypt, a nonprofit
certificate authority created in 2014 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Mozilla (creators of the Firefox browser), University of Michigan, Akamai
Technologies, and Cisco Systems. Unlike most certificates issued, these
are only valid for 90 days. As of 2018, the top three certificate authorities
were IdenTrust, Comodo, and DigiCert. Out of these, IdenTrust has worked
with Let’s Encrypt to cross-sign their intermediate certificates so that Let’s
Encrypt certificates would function in all major browsers.

20
 Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

Web of Trust (WOT)

An alternative to the PKI system is known as the web of trust. In a
cryptographic context, this refers to a system devised in 1992 by Phil
Zimmerman, the creator of the original Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). Trust
translates to binding an identity to a public key. If one obtains public key of
A with a signed message from A, binding another public key and identity of
B, then we can assume the new public key belongs to B.
Instead of using certificate authorities, a web of trust system operates
on the level of identity certificates issued by individuals themselves. For
one, having a certificate system remain independent from any companies
guarantees immunity against bankruptcies. Also, being decentralized,
WOT is a technology which avoids the possibility of a single point of failure
present in many PKI systems.

More on SSL/TLS
As mentioned, perhaps the most commonly encountered use of
certificates is to be found in the online realm of the SSL/TLS protocol.
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and remains a popular way of
encrypting data online; TLS refers to Transport Layer Security and is
simply a newer and improved version of the same technology. A website
secured with SSL/TLS will result in an encrypted connection that is
very hard to eavesdrop on. You’re visiting a secure website if its address
begins with https instead of http.
On an algorithmic level, SSL/TLS can utilize one of several popular
encryption methods, including RSA and the DSA, as described next. As of
2020, you should stick to TLS as SSL is a deprecated standard.

21
Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

FIPS and Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA)

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are public information
processing standards created by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST), for use in computer-based systems of nonmilitary US
government agencies. They encompass cryptographical algorithms and
related methods.
A popular FIPS-compliant method for encrypting signatures, the Digital
Signature Algorithm, emerged in 1994. DSA is currently fairly widely used
as a part of some SSL/TLS-based solutions in place of the RSA encryption
method. Although patented, DSA is available for worldwide implementation
royalty-free. Like the RSA, DSA uses a key pair consisting of a public key
and a private key. The latter is used to create digital signatures for messages,
which in turn can be verified using the signer’s reciprocal public key.

Have Some Standards for Goodness’ Sake

There are a number of prominent standards organizations that are very
much involved in current-day cryptography. We’ll take a quick look at
some of them next; you should be roughly aware of what they do and how
they relate to the world of computer science and cryptography.
First, we have the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T)
of Switzerland that has its roots in the International Telegraph Union (ITU)
founded all the way back in 1865. The format behind TLS/SSL and many
other public-key certificates is known as the X.509 standard, which was
created by ITU-T in 1988.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a
nonregulatory agency of the US Department of Commerce. Since its inception
in 1901, NIST’s mission has been to promote innovation and industrial
competitiveness. The organization’s Cryptographic Technology (CT) Group
has worked extensively on cryptographic technologies over the years.

22
 Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

In 2013 NIST was accused of providing backdoors (i.e., methods of

decrypting encrypted data outside of using the normally required keys) in
their encryption standard SP800-90 for the exclusive use of the National
Security Agency (NSA). They responded by stating NIST is required to work
with the NSA by statute and they also do benefit from NSA’s expertise in
the cryptographic field. Nonetheless, an updated standard, SP800-90A,
was made public in 2015, ostensibly without any backdoors.
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a nonprofit and
private organization that inspects standards for products and technologies
mostly in a US-based context. ANSI also facilitates the use of American
engineering in Europe and elsewhere in the world. As of 2020, the
organization is an adorable spring chicken at 102 years old. While ANSI
doesn’t develop standards per se, it oversees the development and use
of standards by other parties. Important standards designated by the
organization include ANSI C, a standardized version of the C programming
language, and the now obsolete Data Encryption Standard (DES) as
discussed in the previous chapter.
Next, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was
founded in 1947 in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization promotes
worldwide proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards. The ISO
holds general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and
Social Council, which in turn aims to “conduct cutting-edge analysis, agree
on global norms and advocate for progress.” One of ISO’s most relevant
publications in the cryptographic field is the ISO/IEC 18033-1:2015, which
is a multipart international standard specifying most of current state-of-­
the-art encryption systems.
Finally, we have the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) which is an association for electronic and electrical engineering
professionals founded in 1963. With its 420,000 members, the IEEE yields
major influence in all things engineering; the association aims to better the

23
Chapter 2 A Medium-Length History of Digital Cryptography

education and technology in the field. The IEEE produces over 30% of the
world’s literature in computer science, including cryptography, in the form
of over 100 peer-reviewed journals.

In Closing
By finishing this chapter, you hopefully have gained some knowledge on
how popular cryptosystems operate on a theoretical level. You absorbed
information on the following:

• How prime numbers are used in the context of

cryptography

• What the RSA algorithm is and how it operates on a

theoretical level

• RSA’s main strengths and weaknesses

• What public-key infrastructure (PKI) means

• What certificate authorities (CA) and web of trust

(WOT) refer to

• A primer on some of the most well-established

standardization organizations

The next chapter will focus on the de facto universal encryption

standard: the incredible Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This
algorithm is at this very moment protecting most of our encrypted devices
and systems.

24
CHAPTER 3

The AES and

Other Established
Cryptographic
Technologies
By now, you’re aware of some historically relevant cryptographic concepts
and how prime numbers relate to encryption algorithms. In this chapter
we’re moving on to the current-day de facto cryptographic staple, the
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), in addition to tackling many other
relevant concepts in the field. We will first visit some basics, including the
two major numeric systems in computer science: binary and hexadecimal,
for those who feel they need a refresher.

Variables and Arrays 101

Since AES incorporates matrices (i.e., multidimensional arrays), we’ll start
with the related basics. You can skip this section if it sounds familiar.
First, a variable is an arbitrarily named piece of data which holds
information. That may be a letter (e.g., “B”), a single word, or a very
complex number. Arrays are a different kind of data type. They are

© Robert Ciesla 2020 25

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_3
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

collections of the aforementioned variables with each included variable

being indexed for easy access. See the following example written in
the C programming language; fear not, we won’t be dwelling deep into
programming anywhere in this book! A very crucial concept to digital
encryption, prime numbers, was introduced in the previous chapter. Let’s
name our variable accordingly.

int prime_numbers = { 941, 373, 311, 83 };

printf(" Ryker's favorite number is %d", prime_numbers[2],"!" );

First, we created an array called prime_numbers to host four integers,

that is, numbers which can only be written whole, as in 373 and not 373.5.
Then we accessed and displayed the third variable in this array, that is,
311, using index position 2. In the context of computer science, array
indexing usually starts at 0 (e.g., 0, 1, 2, …), and not 1 (e.g., 1, 2, 3, …) like us
humans might expect.

Binary and Hexadecimal

We should now take a quick gander at the two of the most relevant
numeral systems in computer science and, naturally, in cryptography
as well. It’s quite important to know how to interpret a value in any of
the numerical systems mentioned in this section. If your math is sort of
rusty, do read on and master the information; otherwise, you can skip this
section.
All of us are familiar with the decimal system, sometimes also called the
base-ten system. Decimal digits range between 0 and 9. This is a people’s
system as computers prefer other types of numerals, as you will learn next.
Binary represents a numerical system with only two symbols: 0 and 1.
Also known as the base-two system, binary is what digital devices use to
function on the most basic level.

26
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Note In some types of binary operations, you will be often equating

1 for true and 0 for false.

The third important numerical system is known as hexadecimal, base-­

sixteen, or simply hex. In addition to the decimal range of 0 to 9, this system
also uses the letters A to F to represent values between 10 and 16, that is,
11 in the decimal system is represented by the letter B in hex. This means
the hexadecimal system has a total of 16 different symbols for representing
values. Hex bodes well to high informational density: with only two digits,
we can summon numbers up to 255. In binary, we would need eight digits.

Converting Decimal to Binary

We’ll start with decimal to binary conversion. Let’s take the decimal value
of, say, 86, and transport it into the magical realm of binary notation. The
end result is 1010110. And how, you may ask? Well, think of it this way:
binary numbers are collections of flags with only two positions – on and
off. Binary notation starts at 1 and advance to the left with each value
having twice that of the one to its right.
In our example, we start with the “flag” at number 64 (see Table 3-1).
Does 64 go into 86? Oh yes. What about 32? No, then it’s too big. 16? Yes.
We are now at 80. We just have to find the remaining 6 and we do that by
setting the flags at 4 and 2 to “heck yes” and we’re done. We have thus
demonstrated that 86 in decimal is indubitably 1010110 in binary. We may
denote it as follows: (86)10 = (1010110)2

Table 3-1. A simple demonstration of converting the decimal number

86 to binary
Decimal value 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
Binary value 1 0 1 0 1 1 0

27
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

For another example, 13 in decimal would be, you guessed it, 1101 in
binary, that is:
(13)10 = (1101)2

Note There are two concepts you might come across which should
be addressed at this point: the most significant bit (MSB) and the
least significant bit (LSB). The former refers to the first bit (i.e., the
leftmost) in a binary string as it yields the largest value. The latter,
which is found at the last digit in a binary string, only holds the value
of one (1) at most.

Converting Decimal to Hexadecimal

To honor our planet’s oceanic life, let’s take the number of currently
discovered crustacean species (e.g., crabs, lobsters, and shrimp), which
happens to be 67,000, and convert that into hexadecimal, shall we? We’ll
start by dividing said number with 16, and keep doing this until the result
of this division reaches zero. The remainder from each division is then
marked in hexadecimal notation; after each division, anything after the
decimal point is to be discarded. The number of steps it takes to reach
the end result dictates the number of digits we need. Finally, the row of
remainders (in hex) is reversed and you’ve completed the conversion
(see Table 3-2).

28
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Table 3-2. The conversion process of the number 67000 in decimal to

hexadecimal
Step # Operation Result Remainder in Decimal Remainder in Hex

1 67,000 ÷ 16 4187 8 8
2 4,187 ÷ 16 261 11 B
3 261 ÷ 16 16 5 5
4 16 ÷ 16 1 0 0
5 16 ÷ 1 0 1 1

As for the result, the hexadecimal value we were after is 105B8. We

may denote it as follows: (67000)10 = (105B8)16

 onverting Binary to Hexadecimal

C
(and Vice Versa)
The conversion process of binary to hex (or vice versa) is a relatively simple
one. Let’s first tackle the conversion from binary to hexadecimal. We’ll start
by mapping out all 16 symbols of the hexadecimal system in binary (see
Table 3-3). Now each symbol in hex has a corresponding four-digit symbol
in binary (and it’s always four digits in this context).
Keeping up with our oceanic theme, let’s take the number of species
of eel (i.e., 800) and rearrange it from binary to hexadecimal. First, we
need to find what 800 is in binary. That happens to be 1100100000 (see
the segment entitled “Converting Decimal to Binary” previously in this
chapter). Now, we simply divide that binary value into groups of four digits
and refer to Table 3-3 for the corresponding hex symbol. We get three
groups: 0011, 0010, and 0000. This means the desired result is 320. In other
words, (1100100000)2 = (320)16

29
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Table 3-3. All 16 hexadecimal symbols and their binary counterparts

Binary Hex Binary Hex

0000 0 1000 8
0001 1 1001 9
0010 2 1010 A
0011 3 1011 B
0100 4 1100 C
0101 5 1101 D
0110 6 1110 E
0111 7 1111 F

As for the reverse? Take the hexadecimal value of, say, CACA, which
also happens to be the name of a somewhat obscure Goddess in ancient
Roman mythology (look it up). Now, the only thing we need to do for
this type of conversion is to once again ogle at Table 3-3 and pick our
corresponding four-digit binary symbols for each hex symbol. So, CACA in
hex is 1100 1010 1100 1010 in binary. Simple, isn’t it?

C
 lassifying Bits
Unless you’re familiar with the many units used in digital information,
you should take a peek at Table 3-4; it lists some terms which will be
visited and revisited many a time later in this book and in the world of
cryptography as well.

30
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Table 3-4. Some common units

of digital information

Digital Unit Number of Bits

Bit 1
Nibble 4
Byte/octet 8
Word 16
Double word 32
Quad word 64
Kilobyte (KB) 8192
Megabyte (MB) 8388608

The Indomitable AES

By the early 1990s, the Digital Encryption Standard (DES) from 1976 was
rapidly becoming obsolete. The 56-bit keys/passwords simply weren’t
secure enough due to increases in computing power. Even the much more
robust Triple DES algorithm (mentioned in the previous chapter) wasn’t a
good enough successor as it lacked speed even in purely hardware-based
settings. According to a guidance paper published by the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2018, 3DES is being retired. These
guidelines propose that 3DES is deprecated for all new applications and
it’s completely gone after 2023 (Barker & Roginsky, 2019).
Now, an open selection process for a successor to DES, the AES
algorithm, was held by the NIST in 1997. This approach garnered support
from the cryptographic community as it negated many backdoor-related
issues. A total of 15 submissions were made, including algorithms called
MARS (devised by IBM), CRYPTON, and Rijndael. Created by two Belgian

31
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

cryptographers, Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen, the Rijndael method

took first prize. The NIST picked up and renamed Rijndael to publish
the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in 2001. Approved by the US
Secretary of Commerce, AES became an official federal government
standard in May of 2002. Like its predecessor the DES, AES is a symmetric
encryption system, meaning there is only one key/password used for both
encryption and decryption of data.

Note For perspective, using technology available in 2020, it would

take approximately one billion billion years to break even the weakest
form of AES encryption (i.e., the 128-bit variety). It’s best not to try
and/or to think about it.1

I mplementations of AES
The AES system is provided free of charge for any purpose, private or
commercial; the standard is not only made available for the US federal
government. Numerous popular software products utilize AES. These
include file compression tools 7-Zip, Roshal Archive (RAR), and WinZip.
We’ll go in depth into the vast world of AES-based software in the next
chapter. Also, processor giants Intel, and as of late AMD, include hardware-­
based AES acceleration in many of their CPUs making cryptographic
operations faster than ever on their newer platforms. This hardware-based
acceleration technology is known as AES New Instructions (AES-NI).
Under ideal settings, AES-NI can make your cryptographic operations ten
times faster.

1
M. Arora: “How Secure is AES against brute force attacks?”, EE Times, 2012

32
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Block Sizes and Key Lengths

Getting into the technical side of things, we’ll begin with blocks. In the
context of cryptography, these refer to an often fixed-sized amount of
data which is to be operated on by an algorithm at one time. The AES, for
example, processes data in 128 bit blocks only (which is the same as 16
bytes). Encrypted files use as many blocks that are needed to include all of
the plaintext/unencrypted data. If a plaintext fails to fill the last block, the
remainder is filled with the so-called padding (i.e., random data in most
cases) using a padding scheme, which we briefly touched upon in previous
chapter. We’ll examine this concept in depth later in this chapter, too.
Now, just to reiterate: key length refers to the number of bits available
to a key/password in a specific cryptographic system (see Table 3-5). A
theoretical 2-bit key length would offer a whopping two different key
alternatives.
The now-obsolete DES offers a 56-bit key length, providing an initially
impressive 7.2 x 1016 combinations. The strongest form of AES, as in its 256-­
bit variety, gives us a hefty 1.1 x 1077 key combinations, which, again, is very
hard to break (Oppitz & Tomsu, 2018).

Table 3-5. Some popular bit widths and their associated possible
number of keys
Bit Width Possible Number of Keys

128 bits 2128 = 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

192 bits 2192 = 6,277,101,735,386,680,763,835,789,423,207,666,416,10
2,355,444,464,034,512,896
256 bits 2256 = 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,
269,984,665,640,564, 039,457,584,007,913,129, 639,936

33
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

The Substitution–Permutation Network (SPN)

The most prominent feature in AES is a concept known as the substitution–
permutation network. An SPN performs several rounds of processing on
a dataset for encryption. These rounds consist of both substitution and
permutation of data with the creation of the so-called round keys for each
round. These are temporary keys created by the algorithm to “unlock” the
next round. Substitution simply means replacing a symbol with another.
Permutation refers to the rearrangement of the values already present in a
dataset.
The more of these obfuscation rounds is used, the harder the data in
question is to be compromised. In AES, the key size determines the SPN
rounds to be used (see Table 3-6). For critical data it’s important to always
choose the largest key length AES has to offer (i.e., 256 bits).

Table 3-6. The AES key lengths and

how they relate to the SPN rounds

Key Length SPN Rounds Block Size

128 bits 10 128 bits

192 bits 12 128 bits
256 bits 14 128 bits

Row- and Column-Major Orders

AES operates on a 4 × 4 column-major order array which is referred to
as a state. This state consists of blocks which are 16 bytes in size each.
Row-major order and column-major order are methods for storing two-­
dimensional arrays in linear storage such as hard drives or random access
memory (RAM).

34
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

See Figure 3-1 for an illustration on how row-major and column-major

orders differ in their approach. In the context of AES, only the latter is
relevant; the figure also demonstrates what an “AES state” looks like (i.e., a
four by four matrix of data).

Figure 3-1. Row-major and column-major orders. The latter is

relevant in AES

Note A row-major order is sometimes referred to as the

lexographical access order, and column-major orders can be called
by the fancy term of colexographical access orders.

The Steps in an AES Encryption Round

Whereas the older DES algorithm was bit-based, AES operates with bytes
(i.e., groups of eight bits). AES operates largely in a so-called Galois field.
This is a mathematical space where there are a limited number of integers
(i.e., values) in the field. At the core of the AES algorithm are four major
stages with some of them divided into subphases. They are first listed in
this section and then discussed further.

35
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

1. Key Expansion. Takes place once. The round keys

are generated using an algorithm called the key
schedule.

2. Initial Round Key Addition. Takes place once. Each

byte in the “state” (i.e., the AES matrix) is combined
with a block of the round key.

3. A Stage with Four Steps. Takes place 9, 11,

or 13 times.

1. SubBytes. A step where each byte in the state

is replaced with another according to a lookup
table.

2. ShiftRows. The last three rows of the state are

shifted cyclically by a specific number of steps.

3. MixColumns. An operation which combines

the four bytes in each column.

4. Add Round Key

4. Last Round. Takes place once.

1. SubBytes
2. ShiftRows

3. Add Round Key

Remember, in AES the key length determines how many rounds

the algorithm repeats. Next, we’ll go through each of these steps in
greater detail.

36
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

K
 ey Expansion
In the first step, an algorithm called the key schedule is used to create a set
of round keys from the original key/password. AES uses a separate 128-bit
round key for each round and also creates one additional key.
AES key expansion is divided into the following substeps:

1. A RotWord operation performs one-byte left bit

shifting on a word, that is, [B0, B1, B2, B3] becomes
[B1, B2, B3, B0].

2. SubWord is executed for a byte substitution on each

byte using the S-box.

3. Finally, the result of steps 1 and 2 has an XOR

operation applied on it with an AES round constant,
Rcon. This constant holds a different value each round.

Initial Round Key Addition

After summoning the key schedule, each byte of the state is merged with a
block of the round key. This is done using the exclusive OR binary operator
(i.e., XOR) on the datasets. The result after this operation is 1 if only the first
bit is 1 or only the second bit is 1. The result will be 0 if both are 0 or both are
1 (see Table 3-7). So, if we were to XOR the bit values of, say, 10011 and 11100,
the result would be 01100. This operator is often denoted with the symbol ⊕.

Table 3-7. The output from an "exclusive OR" (XOR) operator

Bit Input A Bit Input B XOR Result

1 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 1
0 0 0

37
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

A Stage with Four Steps

SubBytes
This step involves replacing each of the 16 array elements in the AES
state with those from a lookup table, known as the S-box, which is short
for substitution-box. An S-box in AES takes eight bits of information
(i.e., one byte), mapping it into this lookup table and producing
different eight bits of output data (see Table 3-8). The S-boxes
themselves are generated using specific algorithms which are out of the
scope of this book.
Now, let’s say we have this byte getting fed into the S-box: 0001 0010.
This byte will be split in half, creating two 4-bit values (i.e., nibbles).
We then convert these values into hex and get the result of 1 and 2,
respectively. Now, the first value/nibble (in our case the number 1) is
used to find the row placement in the lookup table. Obviously, the second
nibble (in our case 2) tells us which column in the S-box AES is looking at.
In our example, the substitute number would be 39. Naturally, when the
SubBytes routine is executed, it’s used on the contents of an entire AES
state (i.e., the 4 x 4 matrix of data).

Table 3-8. A partial AES S-box. Note the use of

hexadecimal numbering
0 1 2 3 4 ...
0 52 9 6a d5 30
1 7c e3 39 82 9b
2 54 7b 94 32 a6
3 ... 8 2e a1 66 28

38
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

ShiftRows (And a Primer on Bitwise Shift Operators)

Next, we’ll be shifting the 16 byte blocks in the 4 x 4 state grid to the left
by specific amounts. In AES the first row isn’t manipulated in this step.
However, each block in the second row is shifted one place to the left. The
third row is offset by two and the fourth row is offset by three places, all to
the left. See Figure 3-2 for a visual demonstration of this phase. Naturally,
blocks shifted out of the state’s left periphery don’t disappear; instead, they
reappear on its right side.

Figure 3-2. The shift rows step in AES. Notice how the first row
isn’t altered

These types of operators are called bitwise shift operators in the world
of computer science. They are used to shift binary data not only to the left,
but also to the right. Time for an example. Note: Left and right bit shifts are
often denoted with << and >>, respectively.

0010 << 2 → 1000

0010 >> 1 → 0001

39
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

The binary string 0010 in decimal represents the number two (2).
In the first example, we performed a bitwise shift to the left by two bits,
resulting in the binary string of 1000. Converted into decimal, that would
result in the number eight (8). So, for one, a single bit shift left doubles a
variable’s value.
Next, we performed a single bitwise shift right on the same binary string
of 0010. This resulted in 0001, which is the number one in both binary and
decimal. Bitwise operators are universally used not only in cryptography, but
in virtually all programming situations due to their effectiveness; they tend
to be easy on the CPU and not eat a lot of resources.

MixColumns
All of the columns of four bytes are next transformed by the means of
matrix multiplication. This function takes as input the four bytes of one
column and outputs four completely new bytes, which replace the original
column. The result is another new AES state consisting of 16 new bytes.
This step is not performed during the last round.

Add Round Key

In this step the previously generated subkey (i.e., round key) is merged with
the current state. The subkey is added by combining each byte of the state
with the corresponding byte of the subkey using the bitwise operator XOR.

The Last Round

This round consists of one more execution of the aforementioned steps of
SubBytes, ShiftRows, and Add Round Key; MixColumns is not applied at
this stage. And now your plaintext is rather securely encrypted, especially
if you chose to use ASE’s 256-bit key length with its 14 rounds of operation.
However, there is a trade-off concerning the speed of the decryption with
these longer key lengths.

40
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Decryption in AES
Reaching the plaintext in a dataset encrypted in AES is relatively simple:
most of the preceding steps are reversed. However, the same S-box
used during the SubBytes phases during encryption cannot be used for
decryption; the said lookup table needs to have an inverted counterpart at
that point.
Now, here are the steps for decrypting in AES:

1. Key Expansion

2. Add Round Key

3. Reverse ShiftRows

4. Reverse SubBytes

The following four steps are repeated 9, 11, or 13 times (for

128/192/256 bits, respectively):

1. Add Round Key

2. Reverse MixColumns

3. Reverse ShiftRows

4. Reverse SubBytes

And finally, a single Add Round Key-step is executed..

 ash Values: Digital Fingerprints

H
and Checksums
Hash values, as briefly mentioned in the previous chapter, are ways of
identifying messages. These values offer robust and secure identification.
We’ll now examine the concept of hashing in more detail.

41
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

First, be aware that hashing isn’t the same as encryption. A hash value is
more like a unique digital fingerprint for a file. In most cases they’re almost
impossible to reverse engineer and can thus be used for secure identification
of datasets. Simply put, a hashing algorithm creates a fixed-­sized value
(i.e., a value that is always the same bit width, no matter of the input) out of
variable-sized data (e.g., collections of images, text files, or audio files).
The output of a hashing algorithm is sometimes called the message digest.
For example, the text string of Apress is a great publisher! becomes
the following (MD5 algorithm) hash value: 0503ff3cb7e1c6f28064e63fc
5efa0b1. The much shorter message of Hello! results in this hash: 952d2c
56d0485958336747bcdd98590d. Although the messages are of different
sizes, the hash values consist of the same amount of digits, that is, there’s
32 of them in these and any others (processed with MD5).

Note MD5 and other hashing algorithms will be discussed in

depth later in the chapter. Also, most hash values, including the ones
mentioned earlier, are based in the hexadecimal numeric system.

Collisions
In theory, no two hash values are the same: this is what allows for their
exceptional usefulness in digital identification. However, an undesirable
scenario in hashing exists where there are in fact two identical values; this
is known as a collision. Hash values are created using a variety of different
algorithms. An ideal hashing algorithm is one which doesn’t facilitate any
collisions to occur. In reality, some of them do not exactly fit these criteria.
Next, we’ll take a closer look at some of the most popular algorithms for
hashing purposes. For the purposes of this book, we don’t need to dwell in
the inner workings of hashing algorithms, but you should understand why
they’re needed.

42
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Message Digest 4 (MD4)

The MD4 hashing algorithm was published by Ronald Rivest’s RSA Labs in
1990. A compromised hashing algorithm, MD4 is still used in some parts
of user authentication in Microsoft Windows operating systems, including
versions 7, 8, and 10. As of all the way back in 1995, MD4 has been
considered pretty much obsolete in cryptography circles; it’s no longer
considered a true one-way function (Leurent, 2008). Please avoid using this
hashing algorithm in your personal or organizational projects altogether.
When it comes to Microsoft products and the vulnerable MD4, the
security issues are rarely critical. Active Directory (AS) is a Windows-based
service for authenticating and authorizing users and devices. A part of
AS is called NT LAN Manager (NTLM), which is an older authentication
method still using MD4 hashing. NTLM can be swapped for a more robust
authentication protocol called Kerberos in Windows. NTLM is only there
for reasons of backward compatibility. Also, Kerberos is turned on by
default in more modern versions of the Windows operating systems.

Message Digest 5 (MD5)

Published by RSA Labs in 1992, the MD5 is still a widely used algorithm for
hashing purposes. The fifth version of RSA Labs’ technique, MD5, creates
128-bit hash values.
Despite its continuing popularity, the algorithm has weaknesses, most
notably demonstrated by the Flamer malware in 2012. This is a piece of
malicious software originally created for cyber espionage. In fact, the
MD5 is rather notorious among cryptographers due to its proneness for
collisions and is best avoided for identification in 2020 and beyond. For
data integrity verification (i.e., checksums), the MD5 is still very much
useful; it can be successfully used to verify a file transferred via, say, the
Internet, actually arrived intact. Many Linux-based operating systems, as
well as Android, use MD5 checksums.

43
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1)

The NSA came up with the Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) in 1995. This
algorithm produces a 160-bit digest upon its execution, which is quite a
bit more than what MD5 is capable of. The SHA-1 is a certified US Federal
Information Processing Standard (FIPS). However, the algorithm hasn’t
been considered fully secure since 2005. SHA-1 fell on even harder times in
2017, when all major web browsers ended their support for the algorithm
in their SSL/TLS certificates (these were discussed in the previous
chapter). Riddled with collision potential, SHA-1 is best avoided.

Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2)

A group effort from NIST and NSA, the Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2)
was made public in 2001. Instead of a fixed 160 bits, the follow-up to the
original Secure Hash Algorithm offers the digest sizes of 224, 256, 384, and
512 bits. That’s some serious bit width right there and a great improvement
over the original algorithm. All algorithmic varieties of SHA-2 seem to be
collision-resistant. Also, the SHA-256 hash algorithm is ubiquitous in the
world of cryptocurrency, as it’s used by Bitcoin and several other virtual
currencies.

Secure Hash Algorithm 3 (SHA-3)

The latest in the SHA family of hashing algorithms is the Secure Hash
Algorithm 3 (SHA-3), once again created by the NIST. Released in 2015,
this algorithm uses a so-called sponge approach in which data is absorbed
into a sponge function and the result is then “squeezed” out. Again, the
inner workings of this algorithm are beyond the scope of this book. SHA-3
is also known as Keccak.

44
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

However, it is to be noted that although SHA-3 offers the same digest

sizes of its predecessor SHA-2, it also has two new variants to its algorithm:
SHAKE128 and SHAKE256. While these two operate in 128 bits and 256
bits internally, their message digest length can be arbitrarily chosen. Either
one of the SHAKE algorithms could be assigned to produce a hash value of
20, 21, or, say, 60 bits in width.

P
 adding
The term padding in cryptography refers to the adding of gibberish into
encrypted data. This often helps to further protect the plaintext messages
in encrypted datasets. There are several techniques for padding in the
current day. AES, for one, works with many of these varieties. Let’s take a
quick glance at some of the most popular methods.
Bit padding is used by the previously mentioned hashing algorithms,
MD5 and SHA; it involves adding an extra bit and possibly an arbitrary
number of zeros (e.g., 1000 00) to the end of a data block. The ANSI X9.23
standard uses a byte-sized approach, outputting random bytes after a
packet of data (as a reminder, one byte equals eight bits). Zero padding is
the elegant, but efficient approach of adding a random number of zeros
after data. Again, all padding techniques add to the security of encrypted
and/or hashed data.

Would You Like Some Salt with Your Data?

Salting is not a concept only used in food-related spaces. In cryptography,
it refers to the augmentation of a key/password with additional randomly
generated symbols without the key holder being aware of them (see
Table 3-9). This makes for far more robust security than a simple key. Salt
strings can be of any length. For our purposes, let’s use a small 8-bit (i.e.,
4-byte) variety of hexadecimal values.

45
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Table 3-9. Some salted passwords. Salts can either go in front of or

after the key
Password/ Random Password & Final Hashed Value (with MD5)
Key Salt Value Salt

happy d5530386 happyd5530386 edf5631950caaaf4d68662c4394d7c44

sad 6df9b90c 6df9b90csad ee1d2475de02e1285d03e633ec9f4e89

In essence, salting creates relatively safe passwords out of even the

easiest ones to guess (e.g., password or 12345). Salted keys are usually
fed to hashing algorithms for all the security benefits they endow; they
also negate the so-called dictionary attacks which consist of the attacker
entering thousands or millions of dictionary words into a prompt. For a
real-world example, many email providers use salting as an additional
security measure on their services.

Best Salting Practices

Salt strings should be long enough. We used short 8-bit salting in our
example (as in 4 bytes, or eight characters), which wouldn’t be adequate
in some real-world scenarios. In general, the amount of salting should
be reflected by the message digest size of a hashing algorithm. For older
hashing techniques, such as the 160-bit MD5, 8 bits might’ve actually been
adequate. When it comes to 256-bit hashes or bigger, you could pair those
with a larger salt.
Also, salts should be randomly generated and unique, incorporating
aspects like date or time. It would be a big mistake to include the same
exact salts in a system, but it’s known to happen. In addition, a system
administrator should keep their salt-generator code (or any parts of it)
offline and behind closed doors at all times. And use fierce encryption on
the key database.

46
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

How About Some Pepper?

Salting isn’t the only method of increasing password/key security.
A method cleverly called peppering exists. For the most part, it’s an
identical approach to salting with one major difference; in peppering the
“peppered” data is kept hidden and not stored in a database. A pepper
is usually a static, system-wide value which is never made public for any
user; it’s hard-coded into software. Due to the aforementioned reason,
peppers are safe against database breaches. The static nature of peppers is
somewhat problematic as you cannot change them easily, if at all. Should
a pepper leak, it would cause major security issues, forcing a complete
redesign of the compromised system.
Also, for maximal security benefits, a cryptographer could use both
salting and peppering in their password policies.

Stretching Keys
A concept related to salting and peppering, key stretching refers to
enhancing the protection against brute-force attacks a weak key/password
offers by adding to the time it takes to enter/guess a password. This
basically works by feeding the original key into an algorithm which adds
a considerable amount of additional data into it, resulting in a so-called
enhanced key. This is usually a key of 128 bits in width or more. Since the
enhanced key is such a large piece of data, it’ll take the attacker much
more time and resources to discover it, increasing a system’s level of
security greatly.

47
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

Let’s explain these three letters which may appear from time to time in
your cryptographic adventures. Cyclic Redundancy Checks are a type
of error checking in the digital realm, much like checksums mentioned
earlier in this chapter.
CRC works by the sender of a file injecting extra bits into the data to
be sent. This file is then transmitted through a network (e.g., the Internet,
local area networks). Next, the results between the sender’s and receiver’s
CRC bits are compared. If they match, the data packets have been received
in full. Expressed on a more technical level, data sent through a CRC
system gets a check value attached to it, which is based on the remainder of
a polynomial division of their contents. There are about a dozen different
varieties of CRC for various scenarios, but for the purposes of this book, a
cursory look at this concept will suffice.

As a reminder, a polynomial is an expression consisting of one or

more variables (often designated with the letter x). The following two
expressions are examples of polynomials:
x2 - 3x + 2, 4x2 + 2x - 8

Modes of Operation
Before ending this chapter, we will address an important part of
cryptographic solutions: modes of operation. We will revisit some of these
concepts later in the book from the context of the most popular operating
systems. These operating modes are not exclusive to AES; they can be
applied to any block cipher. Modes of operation are an important part of a
group known as cryptographic primitives, which refer to well-established
algorithms used as building blocks for secure systems.

48
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Block Ciphers and Stream Ciphers

There are roughly two types of ciphers: block ciphers, as in the AES, and
stream ciphers, such as the Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4) or Salsa20. The latter
process data one bit (or byte) at a time instead of as blocks of data. Stream
ciphers mix pseudorandom data with the plaintext message. These types
of ciphers offer real-time operation, as the complete dataset doesn’t have
to be transmitted before decryption can occur.

Electronic Code Book (ECB)

A weak method, the electronic code book technique provides an identical
encrypted result for each identical block of plaintext data. Often a hefty
salting scheme is necessary to make the ECB operating mode usable. It
does feature parallelization, which refers to simultaneous processing of
multiple blocks of data; this can reduce overhead considerably on systems
with multiple CPU cores. However, ECB is not a recommended mode of
operation under any circumstances.

Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)

In this method each block (apart from the first one which uses a random
seed) is processed using data from the previous one. While more robust
than ECB, data encrypted using cipher block chaining is more prone to
data corruption. It will only take a handful of flawed bits due to, say, a
transmission error in a single block to compromise the integrity of the
rest of the data. Also, unlike the otherwise inferior ECB mode, CBC is
sequential (i.e., nonparallelized) during encryption. Despite its potential
issues, CBC is the most commonly used operating mode as of 2020.

49
Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

Counter Mode (CTR)

The counter mode is a fully parallelizable stream cipher. This basically
means a block-based cipher (e.g., AES) being used as a stream cipher. CTR
offers random access processing during both encryption and decryption,
which is beneficial in scenarios such as disk drive encryption. Also, this
mode, when implemented properly, can leverage the many varieties of
special processing instructions found in most modern CPUs to further
boost its operating efficiency (e.g., technologies like MMX and SSE).

In Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have hopefully gained awareness of
the following:

• What the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is and

when it’s used

• What the binary and hexadecimal systems are and how

to convert between them

• How the substitution–permutation network (SPN) in

AES works

• What steps are a part of a single round of operation

in AES

• What hashing means and what some of the most

popular algorithms for this are

• What salting and peppering refer to in the context of

cryptography

In the next chapter we’ll go deep into the world of encryption software,
including methods included in popular operating systems as well as some
of the most relevant third-party products.

50
 Chapter 3 The AES and Other Established Cryptographic Technologies

References
Oppitz, M., Tomsu P. (2018). Inventing the Cloud Century: How Cloudiness
Keeps Changing Our Life, Economy and Technology. Springer.
Leurent G. (2008) MD4 is Not One-Way. In: Nyberg K. (eds) Fast
Software Encryption. FSE 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol
5086. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Barker E., Roginsky A. (2019). Transitioning the Use of Cryptographic
Algorithms and Key Lengths. NIST Special Publication 800-131A, revision 2.

51
CHAPTER 4

You, Your Organization,

and Cryptographic
Security
Now that you’ve got some theoretical know-how on how cryptography
works, it’s time we apply this on a practical level. In this chapter
we’ll be examining some popular operating systems and how they
handle cryptographic matters. We’ll also be looking at other types of
related software and how they can help you and your organization in
maintaining privacy and any potential trade secrets. Let’s start off by
defining (and/or revisiting) some concepts relevant to all forms of digital
cryptography.

Storage Devices, Sectors, and Blocks

It’s indeed time we get practical. In order to get to the gist of how
encryption works in the real world, we need to look at the most common
ways of storing digital data: hard drives and related storage devices. By
now you’ve seen the ads, bought the computer(s), and owned different
hard disks in the process. You’ve probably heard of 500 Gigabyte drives

© Robert Ciesla 2020 53

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_4
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

and 10 Terabyte ones, understanding the latter provides much more room
for your music, photos, and software. Let’s switch on a dweeby electron
microscope and take a good look at how bits are actually organized on a
hard drive and a solid-state drive, as it all relates to many facets of digital
cryptography.
In the context of hard drives, a sector usually refers to a physical
piece spanning 512 bytes (i.e., 4096 bits). This was, and to an extent
still is, the minimum storage unit on most of these devices. However,
newer generation hard drives using a technique known as Advanced
Format (AF) have their sectors set at 4096 bytes (i.e., 32,768 bits). Now,
a concept closely related to a sector is the block. These refer to anything
between a single sector and groups of sectors (e.g., you may have one
block which spans four sectors or one block which includes only one
sector). So, a block is an abstraction which represents the smallest unit
of storage on a storage device. Blocks are needed because an operating
system can’t possibly access all sectors on an individual basis: there’s
simply a limited amount of “handles” or IDs available in an OS for that
purpose. Using the block approach allows operating systems to support
larger drives.
The next generation of hard disks is the solid-state drive (SSD). Unlike
hard disks, these types of drives have no moving parts and are thus faster
and more energy-efficient. These storage devices utilize semiconductor
cells for their functioning instead of rotating physical disks. The smallest
unit of storage in an SSD is called a page. This generally refers to 4 kilobytes
of data (i.e., 4096 bytes or 32,768 bits). From an operating system’s and
a user’s perspectives, SSDs work the same as hard drives. As with hard
drives, an SSD’s data space is grouped into blocks by an OS enabling a
limited amount of file handles to access all of the drive.

54
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Here’s digital media organization in a yellow walnut: a sector on a

hard drive usually refers to its smallest unit of storage spanning
either 512 or 4096 bytes. The smallest unit of storage in a solid-
state drive (SSD) is called a page. This usually refers to 4 kilobytes
of data (i.e., 4096 bytes). Blocks are groups of sectors assigned by an
operating system.

The Wonders of File Systems

A file system is a piece of software which manages how and where data
on a storage device is maintained. Different operating systems may have
different, and sometimes incompatible, file systems. Commonly, an
operating system has both a proprietary file system format and several
more or less universally compatible file systems at its disposal. Let’s review
some of the most common file systems and how they relate with one and
other (see Table 4-1).

Table 4-1. A summary of current-day file system support between

operating systems
File System MacOS Linux Windows

NTFS Software Software required Supported

required
Mac OS Extended (HFS+) Supported Configuration required Software
required
Apple File System (APFS) Supported Software required Software
required
FAT Supported Supported Supported
exFAT Supported Supported Supported

55
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

The FAT file system (an abbreviation of File Allocation Table) is both
old and almost universally supported. Most operating systems can read
and write FAT-formatted devices (e.g., hard disks and USB devices) without
installing any additional software. This system does have its limitations.
For one, an individual file has the upper size limit of 4 gigabytes. As
of 2020, FAT is still on occasion used on memory cards among other
applications.
In 2006 Microsoft released the exFAT file system. It was well received
and became the de facto standard on SD memory cards, for one. Gone was
the file size limit of FAT; in exFAT, a single file can be up to 128 petabytes
in size (i.e., 1015). As of recent years, most operating systems have a robust
support for exFAT right out of the box.
The once-ubiquitous Mac OS Extended (HFS+) file system is
still quite widely in use due to literal decades of development and
proliferation. Starting its life in 1998, it was Apple’s main file system
until 2017 with the introduction of the Apple File System (APFS).
Although readable by most modern Windows OSs, disks formatted in
either HFS+ or APFS require special software to enable any writing/
saving functionality. One notable maker of such tools is Paragon
Software. They provide Apple-related disk access solutions for both
Windows and Linux environments.

Apple OSs utilize Journaling, which is a feature that keeps records

of any changes to files on a disk. This log is stored as a unique data
structure called the Journal. This helps a system to recover after
abrupt shutdowns due to, say, power outages.

56
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Apple’s HFS+ file system can be in most cases used on Linux without
special software, but that requires an extra step of configuration before you
can reliably both read and write HFS+ data on the Linux side of the fence.
So prior to using the disk in Linux, connect said device to your Mac and
enter the following command in the Terminal program:

$ sudo diskutil disableJournal "/Volumes/diskname"

This disables journaling on the disk and you should now have a
fully operable drive in Linux. Using devices formatted in Apple’s latest
file system in most Linux distributions (i.e., AFPS), however, requires
dedicated software.

Disabling journaling on a MacOS boot/system hard drive is very risky.

Do not do that! Only consider that for nonsystem and/or noncritical
hard drives.

Volumes and Partitions

Now, we must tackle two more important concepts: the volume and the
partition. In the context of modern operating systems, a partition is a
storage area within a single file system. Basically, partitioning is the act
of dividing a storage device into smaller pieces. For example, you could
partition a 500 gigabyte hard drive into two partitions, both of which are
250 GB in size. You could also get creative and opt for a, say, single 20 GB
partition and a 480 GB one with said hard drive, for whatever purposes.
In Windows context, partitions ready for use are assigned drive letters
(e.g., C, D, E). After this, they are referred to as volumes.

57
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Full-Disk Encryption (FDE)

In many cases it’s beneficial to encrypt an entire hard drive or drives. This
way an entire dataset is unreachable to most malicious parties. Many,
but not all, encryption software suites provide this functionality. While
not impenetrable (as we will learn in the next chapter), FDE is a must for
mobile devices at the very least. Its only trade-off is a mostly negligible
slowdown of a computer as the device needs to constantly work in tandem
with the encryption process.

File Containers
One doesn’t need to encrypt entire disks; file containers are virtual disks
of arbitrary size that for an outsider look like single files full of nonsense.
Once a file container is created, it can only be accessed using the right
kind of software and, naturally, the correct key/password. Pretty much
all third-party cryptographic software suites provide the functionality of
creating these types of files in case you have a handful of sensitive data
(e.g., unflattering mankini or swimsuit photos) you want to conceal from
the world at large.

Pre-boot Authentication (PBA)

The boot disk refers to the hard drive which contains a computer’s
operating system, such as Windows or Linux. Pre-boot authentication is a
technique which allows one to prevent an operating system from starting
(i.e., booting up) unless a password is provided. Naturally, in this context
the password is issued by the operator of an encryption tool (i.e., you) and
not an OS.

58
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

Software alone doesn’t always guarantee a secure system; usually only the
addition of dedicated hardware creates truly robust security. A Trusted Platform
Module is an international standard for hardware-based cryptoprocessors, as
standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2009.
Basically, a TPM offers random number generation, secure password
generation, and the remote means of a third party to verify that the system
hasn’t been compromised. Physically, TPMs are usually small chips that
connect directly into a computer’s motherboard. Their manufacturers
include Intel, IBM, and Samsung, to name just three.

Block Cipher Operating Modes

Like you may know by now, the AES algorithm, which we became
acquainted with in the previous chapter, is a so-called block cipher. These
are systems which crunch data in specific amounts (i.e., blocks) at a time.
For AES, this block is 128 bits long. As for the primordial DES algorithm, it’s
a mere 64 bits at a time. Now, AES and other block ciphers/algorithms can
function in a variety of ways. These are known as operating modes and they
will be briefly discussed next.
Cipher block chaining (CBC) is a mode of operation where the data
in one block is used to alter the next block. With CBC, we begin by
summoning an arbitrary number, known as the initialization vector (IV).
This number is only used once per session. The IV is then hit with an
exclusive OR bitwise operation (i.e., the mighty XOR as discussed in the
previous chapter). The aforementioned initial steps create the first data
block in the CBC technique. Next, this value is connected, with another
XOR operation, to the second block of data. And so the system continues
until all of the data blocks have been processed and chained together.

59
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

The block size of the encryption algorithm being used in CBC

determines the length of the initialization vector (IV); in the case of
AES, that would be 128 bits. Naturally, for DES the IV would only be
64 bits long.

As useful as CBC is, a more robust cipher operating mode called

AES-­X TS was introduced in 2010. This mode uses two AES keys: one for
the encryption and the other for a so-called tweak value. The tweak key
is to be at least 128 bits in length. Simply put, it strengthens the original
AES key; a 256-bit AES key size would become 384-bit wide if used with
the AES-XTS method.
This approach guarantees that each data block is filled with different
data even when issued with identical input. Also, since in AES-XTS data
blocks aren’t chained, any corrupted bits in a data block do not “spread”
into subsequent ones and merely damage the block they occur in (this is
known as the avalanche effect). AES-XTS is becoming very popular in flash
drives and other portable media devices.

Encryption in Modern Operating Systems

Most popular operating systems have built-in facilities for encryption (see
Table 4-2). In general, at least the latest versions of these encryption tools
are easy to use and offer a high degree of security. Of course, you may opt
to use a third-party encryption solution, just in case you feel uneasy about
potential backdoors in these systems.

60
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Table 4-2. A summary of built-in encryption solutions on modern

operating systems
Operating System Windows 7, 8, 10 Linux MacOS
Software BitLocker Linux Unified FileVault 2
Key Setup (LUKS)
Algorithm/Key Size AES 128-/256-bit Variable AES-256 bit
Operating Mode CBC, XTS-AES* Variable XTS-AES

*= Windows 10 only

E ncryption in MacOS: FileVault

and FileVault 2
Apple’s popular line of operating systems has a reputation for robust
whole disk encryption, at least since the 2011 release of OS X Lion (10.7)
and with it, FileVault 2. Now, the first version of FileVault (introduced
in OS X Panther, 10.3) had the lackluster approach of only encrypting a
user’s home directory. While this protected most of a user’s documents,
it still potentially offered malicious actors quite a reach into a computer.
In addition, FileVault was somewhat slow in its operation, being based on
virtual disk images (called sparse images in this context). Finally, in 2006
legacy FileVault was completely compromised by the Chaos Computer
Club (CCC), which is the largest association of hackers in Europe. Avoid
the first version of Apple’s encryption for critical data. Laypeople may still
not get into your first-generation FileVault disks, but experts sure can.
With a barely noticeable performance hit, FileVault 2 takes on a vastly
improved approach offering full-disk encryption for the first time built-in
into MacOS. In addition, FileVault 2 creates a recovery key, an alternate
password, which you may either write down and store it securely, or tie
it into your Apple account on the iCloud online ecosystem. If you choose

61
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

the former, you only get one look at this key: scribble it down carefully.
With its many strengths and few (addressed) issues, as of 2020 FileVault 2
is a good choice for smaller organizations and individuals. As always with
proprietary encryption software, a backdoor may be present for the US
government to sneak in through.

Turning on FileVault 2 on MacOS (10.7 or newer) is simple. Click

System Preferences ➤ Security & Privacy ➤ FileVault. Click the lock
icon on the bottom left and enter your user password. You can now
enable disk-wide encryption by clicking Turn on FileVault.

W
 indows and BitLocker
Most recent versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems ship
with a versatile encryption tool called BitLocker. In addition to offering
a traditional password-based system, users can opt to authenticate
themselves on BitLocker using several hardware-based methods, adding
combinations of TPM and USB devices into a security solution (see
Table 4-3). In theory, the more measures you have implemented, the more
secure your system is likely to be.

Table 4-3. A summary of BitLocker authentication mechanisms

Password TPM-device and USB-stick
TPM-device and password USB-stick only
TPM-device, password, and USB-stick TPM-device only

62
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

In addition to its great feature set, BitLocker supports the

implementation of an older Microsoft encryption technology, Encrypting
File System (EFS). Like its name states, EFS operates on a file-level using a
combination of public key (i.e., asymmetric) cryptography and symmetric
key cryptography. Ultimately, EFS is only as strong as the user’s Windows
password as the two are very much intertwined. Combined with BitLocker,
however, this issue is negated making for a very capable duo of security
measures. EFS has been available since 2000 with the launch of Windows
2000; it’s still implemented in several of Microsoft’s professional operating
systems.
Besides all of its strengths, BitLocker is considered lacking in one
aspect: it’s closed source. You may or may not choose to believe Microsoft
when they stated there are no backdoors in the software. However, unless
an organization is in direct opposition to the US government, BitLocker is
a fine choice for all your system-wide cryptographic needs. See Table 4-4
for the varieties of Windows shipping with most up-to-date versions of the
software.

Table 4-4. Versions of current Windows operating

systems with BitLocker support
Windows 10 Education, Professional, or Enterprise edition
Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise edition
Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate edition

Now, let’s implement a full-disk encryption scheme with BitLocker.

Navigate to System & Security ➤ BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows.
Choose the drive you wish to encrypt (e.g., Windows (C:)) and click Turn
on BitLocker. You will be presented with an unlocking option; you can
choose either to Enter a password or to Insert a USB-stick.

63
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Next, it’s time to choose a way for storing the recovery key. You’ll have
the alternatives of using your Microsoft account, saving the recovery key
to another USB device, saving it into a file, or printing it out on a piece of
paper.
We’ll now get to choose how much of the drive will be encrypted. You
can select to encrypt either only the files already in use or to cover the
entire hard drive. In general, the latter is the slower, but safer option.

It’s at this point when installing BitLocker on Windows 10 you get the
option of using the XTS-AES operating mode, referred on this screen as
New encryption mode. If you’re encrypting a movable storage device,
such as a USB-stick, it’s best to choose Compatible mode instead.

Finally, BitLocker will want to check your drive for errors and restart
Windows to begin the encryption process, which will run smoothly in the
background. If you need to get some work done or even shut down your
computer, you can do it safely even at this stage of BitLocker’s operation.
The preceding example, while providing us with a robustly encrypted
operating system, didn’t take into account the various hardware-based
security measures previously mentioned in the chapter. All of that will be
covered later in the book.

Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS)

Most current distributions of Linux offer a robust encryption standard,
the Linux Unified Key Setup, created by one Clemens Fruhwirth and
released in 2004. A very versatile system, LUKS offers three varieties of AES
encryption in addition to many others. It allows for full-disk encryption,
too. LUKS is used in conjunction with cryptsetup, a tool for creating and
managing encrypted disks and partitions in Linux.

64
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

LUKS allows multiple users to decrypt the master key. Unlike the other
two OS-based encryption approaches mentioned in this chapter, LUKS is
open source. Backdoors aren’t therefore an issue. This makes LUKS a great
choice for Top Secret tier material; only extraterrestrials and that guy with
peanut allergy in the cafeteria might be able to access disks encrypted with it.
Now, LUKS is potentially one of the safest system-wide encryption
techniques mentioned in this chapter, certainly more so than Apple’s or
Microsoft’s products, simply due to the transparency it offers. We’ll be
looking into LUKS with much more attention later in this book. For now,
it suffices you’re aware of it.

Third-Party Encryption Suites

Naturally, encryption built into operating systems aren’t your only solution
for any cryptographic needs you may have. The scene of third encryption
software is vibrant and chock-full of great products. We’ll take a look at few
of the most useful software in this category next (see Table 4-5).

Table 4-5. A summary of some popular third-party encryption tools

Software OS Support Pre-boot Full-Disk TPM
Authentication Encryption Support

BestCrypt Windows, MacOS, Yes Yes Yes

Linux (partial)
DriveCrypt Windows Yes Yes No
eCryptfs Linux No No Yes
ProxyCrypt Windows No Yes No
VeraCrypt Windows, MacOS, For Windows only Yes No
Linux

65
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

BestCrypt by Jetico
Full-disk encryption (FDE) in Jetico’s line of products, called BestCrypt
Volume Encryption, gives you a choice of five encryption algorithms,
all running on their most secure mode of 256-bit keys and all operating
on XTS. While offering dual-operating system support (i.e., Windows
and MacOS), FDE in BestCrypt only supports hardware-based security
measures (i.e., TPM) for users of Windows. BestCrypt doesn’t have an FDE
product for Linux.
However, Jetico also offers a separate file container-based product for
Windows, MacOS, and Linux each; this is called the BestCrypt Container
Encryption.
In 2013, Jetico released the full source code for its encryption products
(i.e., the BestCrypt Development Kit); it’s very unlikely this software comes
with any backdoors. One could do a lot worse than to purchase a BestCrypt
license for their organization. A 21-day free trial is available on the Jetico
website as of this writing.
Download BestCrypt here: www.jetico.com.

DiskCryptor by ntldr
Although last updated in 2014, DiskCryptor is a stable and secure open
source solution for nearly impenetrable encryption. Made exclusively for
Windows, the software comes with AES and two other algorithms which
can also be used in tandem with each other.
DiskCryptor is highly optimized for Intel’s core line of processors, but
due to its design approach, it’s very fast on other types of CPUs as well.
The author of DiskCryptor quite correctly assumes that commercial
encryption solutions, while technically impressive, do have major issues.
Clunky interfaces aside, open source cryptography is ultimately the way to
go as we will see later in the book.
Download DiskCryptor here: https://diskcryptor.net.

66
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

DriveCrypt by SecurStar
Advertised as “military strength encryption,” DriveCrypt’s 1344-bit key
strength sounds quite robust indeed. As for its algorithms, the software
offers about a half a dozen including AES and, rather interestingly, the
obsolete DES. How exactly the massive key strength is obtained is unclear,
but on paper DriveCrypt seems like a solid Windows-only encryption
solution. The software even features support for advanced steganography
(as discussed earlier in the book) which is the technique of hiding sensitive
data in plain daylight in the form of fake music files and the like.
As for backdoors, SecurStar remain adamant that these are not
included in their products. Based in Germany, their claim seems to
carry some heft as the country is quite comfortable with cryptographic
freedoms. This may or may not change in the future, and if it does,
SecurStar have vowed to “move the company accordingly.”
A free 30-day demo version of DriveCrypt is available as of this writing.
Download DriveCrypt here: www.securstar.com/en/drivecrypt.html.

e Cryptfs
Not a software suite per se, eCryptfs is in fact a complete cryptographic file
system for Linux. This solution is actually a so-called stacked file system,
which refers to eCryptfs co-operating with a Linux file system. It has been
a part of the Ubuntu distribution since version 9.04. It’s also included in
Google’s Chrome Operating System, which is a Linux variant.
eCryptfs adds cryptographic metadata into files, so that any encrypted
files can be easily transmitted between hosts. These files will be then
decrypted automatically should the proper key/password be in the Linux
keyring. eCryptfs utilizes the AES algorithm.

67
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

As with most things Linux, eCryptfs is open source and not likely
to have backdoors. A tad complicated for beginners, this is a powerful
cryptographic tool in the arsenal of any organization in need of additional
reinforcement into their security regime.
Download eCryptfs here: https://ecryptfs.org.

ProxyCrypt by v77
Described by its author as a tool for “paranoids and advanced users,”
ProxyCrypt is a powerful open source encryption system. On offer are
three algorithms, including the 256-bit variety of AES. Available for
Windows only, ProxyCrypt is a somewhat obscure piece of software but is
both speedy and secure. It’s a great choice for a robust full-disk encryption
solution with features such as hardware acceleration and automatic key
stretching (a technique discussed in the previous chapter).
Although ProxyCrypt was first released in 2013, it is a command-­
line tool, meaning it uses a sparse text-based approach. However, a free
graphical user interface is available, which makes the software more
appealing to beginners.
Download ProxyCrypt here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/
proxycrypt.

VeraCrypt by IDRIX
Based on the legacy of a once very popular cryptographic system,
TrueCrypt (2004–2011), VeraCrypt is an open source, feature-rich
encryption suite available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Extensively
audited and deemed to be without backdoors, you can use this fine piece
of software for either full-disk encryption or for container files.

68
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

VeraCrypt offers five individual encryption algorithms, including

AES, as well as their ten different combinations. It uses the XTS mode of
operation and has full support for hardware-based acceleration (i.e., AES-­
NI). Also, if you have old TrueCrypt file containers somewhere you still
want to access, VeraCrypt allows for that, too. Do note that the developers
of VeraCrypt are vehemently opposed to adding support for trusted
platform modules, as they feel a potential physical visit from a malicious
party would negate the benefits of any TPM-devices.
Download VeraCrypt here: www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html.

T utorial Time!
Knowing how much theory goes into encryption, it might surprise you how
comfortable much of current-generation cryptographic software is to use.
We’ll now create a secure file container which may or may not be your very
first one. For this task we’ll be using the outstanding VeraCrypt tool.

1. Download VeraCrypt from the URL provided

before.

2. Install and run the software. You’ll arrive at the

main VeraCrypt window (see Figure 4-1).

69
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Figure 4-1. The main VeraCrypt-window

It is here we get to create and access our encrypted

file containers. You’ll notice the software offers you
a total of 64 slots. This is the maximum amount
of file containers you can operate on at the same
time. However, you might only need a slot or
two, depending on the size of your operation/
organization. Next, we’ll proceed to create a new
container called topsecret (which is already visible in
Figure 4-1).

3. Click Create Volume. You’ll be given two options.

Choose Create an encrypted file container and click
Next.

70
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

4. On the next prompt, choose Standard VeraCrypt

volume and click Next.

5. Click Select file and navigate to the folder you

want our file container to reside in.

6. Review Encryption options. The defaults are set to

AES as the encryption algorithm and SHA-256 as the
hashing method. These are both fine choices, so let’s
just click Next.

7. Decide on the volume size. You can enter the file

container size in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes.
For our purposes, let’s choose the nice round
number of ten megabytes and click Next.

8. Enter key/password. VeraCrypt wisely informs

us about the importance of good passwords. A
password which isn’t directly taken from the
dictionary and is at least 20 characters in length
is highly recommended. A good password would
be something like iuyERwuy8321!53tNbv_. A bad
one would be hello123. A really bad one would be
hello. Should you enter an atrocious password at
this stage, the software will inform you of this and
suggest you come up with a better one post haste.
After you’ve decided on a password, click Next.

Note If you ever regret your choice of passwords in VeraCrypt, you

can change them later from the main window by choosing a mounted
file container and clicking Volume Tools ➤ Change Volume Password.

71
Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

9. Select format options. This setting depends on

which operating system you intend to access the file
container. Both FAT and exFAT are compatible in
Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
10. Decide on cross-platform support. If you chose
a file system other than FAT, a prompt will appear
warning you about the dangers of having an OS-
specific file system. You can then choose to either go
back to step 9 and choose differently or stubbornly
proceed with the choice you previously made.

11. Move your mouse around the VeraCrypt window.

Seriously, do this until the blue bar reaches
its rightmost edge. This step uses user mouse
movement to add a degree of randomness to the
encryption at hand.

12. Click Format. Your file container is now being

created in the location you chose in step 5. This
process might take quite a lengthy amount of time,
depending on how big a container you chose to
create and the processing power your computer has.
13. Click Select file on the VeraCrypt main window.
Navigate to the directory where you chose to store
the file container. Click Mount. You’ll be now asked
for the password. After another potentially long
wait, the file container is now recognized by your OS
and you can start adding files into it.

72
 Chapter 4 You, Your Organization, and Cryptographic Security

Congratulations! You have now taken your first steps in digital

cryptography. Keep those mankini and/or swimsuit shots safe. The
preceding tutorial demonstrated how to use VeraCrypt, but many of the
steps are similar to those in other third-party encryption products as well.

In Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have hopefully gained awareness of
the following:

• How operating systems organize data on storage

devices, including what sectors and blocks refer to

• How different file systems relate to each other

• The basics of CBC and AES-XTS block cipher operating

modes

• Which popular third-party cryptographic software titles

are out there

• How to create and use file containers using the

VeraCrypt tool

In the next chapter we’ll discuss a whole host of cryptographic attacks,

scams, and other seedy concepts. We’ll naturally also cover how to best
tackle each of these nefarious techniques. Take a deep breath and please,
stand clear!

73
CHAPTER 5

Common Attacks
Against Cryptographic
Systems
As formidable and secure as a computer with strong encryption sounds,
there is literally an entire scientific discipline for breaking into such
systems. In this chapter we’ll take a look at many of these malicious
techniques designed for breaking into cryptographic systems. Also, we’ll
tackle many other cyberthreats which are not specifically related to
cryptographic environments, such as malware and network-based attacks,
as these often go hand in hand. We’ll also introduce some concepts
important for the topic at hand.
Remember, you don’t have to be an expert in cryptographic attacks
after finishing this chapter or book. It’s enough that you roughly know what
types of attacks are out there and how to defend against them. We’ll revisit
these threats in the next chapters.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 75

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_5
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Cryptographic Attack Models

Let’s say some malicious actor, we’ll call him Larry, wants to either breach
into a secure system or discover aspects of the key to decrypt it. For that,
there are several different approaches, which depend on the type and
amount of information Larry has. Here are the four typical so-called
cryptographic attack models:

• Ciphertext only. Only the encrypted data is in Larry’s

possession. He could try a brute-force attack. This
refers to the daunting task of guessing every possible
password/key until the correct one is found and the
encrypted data is decrypted.

• Known plaintext. Larry has at least some parts of both

the encrypted data and the corresponding plaintext
(i.e., the decrypted data).

• Chosen plaintext. Larry gains access to the encrypted

system, but is unable to find the key/password. However,
he can encrypt a number of randomly chosen plaintexts
and use the resulting ciphertexts to deduce the key.
• Chosen cipher text. Larry gets to examine both a
bunch of cipher texts and their plaintext counterparts.
He may, for example, lure an unsuspecting system
administrator into encrypting specific plaintexts and
have him or her deliver them back as cipher text. Larry
then attempts to use the results to eventually gain the
password/key. This attack model works mostly against
public-key encryption schemes, such as RSA.

In cryptography, an attack vector, or simply vector, refers to the

approach a malicious actor takes against a system.

76
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

C
 ryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis is the analysis of information systems in order to gain
information about potential hidden sets of data in these systems. The
aforementioned four attack models are part and parcel of cryptanalysis.
Modern cryptanalysis techniques date back to the early 1990s and they can
be split roughly into two groups: linear and differential. These techniques
will be discussed next. While both of them were originally devised to
thwart the now obsolete DES cipher (as discussed in Chapter 1), they are
still relevant to this day.

L inear Cryptanalysis
Cryptographer Mitsuru Matsui introduced linear cryptanalysis in 1993.
With this approach, a malicious actor seeks to find linear relations between
a few bits from the plaintext (i.e., the unencrypted dataset), the encrypted
message, and the so-called round keys we discussed in Chapter 3 in the
context of the AES algorithm. Linear cryptanalysis uses a known plaintext
attack model (see the “Cryptographic Attack Models” section earlier in this
chapter).

D
 ifferential Cryptanalysis
Contrast to linear cryptanalysis, differential cryptanalysis is used not only
against block ciphers (e.g., AES) but also cryptographic hash functions.
This technique is usually attributed to cryptographers Eli Biham and Adi
Shamir sometime in the late 1980s. Differential cryptanalysis is a chosen-­
plaintext attack model (see the “Cryptographic Attack Models” section).
Under this scenario we have access to the encrypted system, but not the
password.

77
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Basically, differential cryptanalysis is used to examine how differences

in the data input affect the output in a cryptographic event; the technique
is looking for instances of nonrandom data in a cipher. This can ultimately
result in the discovery of the secret key/password for decrypting an entire
dataset.

B
 irthday Attack
When attacking hash values (as discussed in Chapter 3), a malicious actor
can choose to use the birthday attack. Let’s say a hash value is 64 bits in
length, so its possible values span 1.8x1019, a fairly large range. However,
after repeatedly evaluating a function with different input data, the exact
same output is expected to be obtained after only 5.1x109 instances of
input. If the attacker is able to find two different inputs that give the exact
same hash value, a collision event has occurred and the hash function in
question has been broken. Birthday attacks are in essence a form of the
brute-force attack, which we will get into next.

Brute-Force Attack (BFA)

Perhaps the most basic of cryptographic attacks, a brute-force attack
simply refers to a malicious actor entering as many potential passwords
into a system hoping one of them unlocks it. This type of attack is mostly
useful against weak (i.e., short and/or trivial) passwords and as of decades
ago, fully automated.
While not very efficient when executed by humans, a dedicated brute-­
force computer can theoretically enter millions of passwords per second
into a system. Also, more technologically complicated approaches exist,
such as chaining several computers together to create a more or less
formidable brute-force task force. However, as of 2020, brute-force attacks
are usually of limited use for malicious actors due to public awareness of
strong passwords and various automated countermeasures.

78
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Also, there’s a so-called reverse brute-force attack, which refers to the

process of entering common passwords into multiple user accounts in
the hope that the owners of at least some of these accounts didn’t choose
strong passwords, opting for “password1” or a similar, disgraceful key
instead.
Countermeasures Against Brute-Force Attack:

• Limiting the amount of passwords one can enter into a

system per session

• Using strong passwords (12 characters minimum, no

words from a dictionary, including special characters
such as !”#_%&)

• Implementing Completely Automated Public Turing test

to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) to
protect against automated attacks (see Figure 5-1)

Figure 5-1. A CAPTCHA system in action

The Turing test, created by famous computer scientist Alan Turing

(1912–1954), refers to a computer’s ability to fool a human being
so that they feel they are communicating with a fellow member of
the homo sapiens species. This can be implemented as, say, a (more
or less) intelligent chat program. As of 2020, there are very few
examples of this in existence.

79
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

C
 ontact Analysis
Related to frequency analysis as presented in Chapter 1, contact analysis
is an attack which examines which characters (e.g., letters or numbers)
precede or follow other characters. In any language (e.g., English), certain
characters share adjacency more than others.
Although mostly relegated to classical cryptography, contact analysis
can be utilized in some modern contexts as a type of ciphertext only attack
(see “Cryptographic Attack Models” section). Contact analysis is based
on conditional probability, in which an event becomes possible should a
certain condition be first met.
Best Countermeasure Against Contact Analysis:

• Forcing users to use complex passwords with special

characters

Evil Maid Attack

An evil maid attack simply refers to an attack on an unattended device.
A malicious actor with physical access alters a device in some nearly
undetectable way so that they can later access the device and the data
on it. Never let that one suspicious maid or roommate sneak up on your
devices; guard them well!
Countermeasures Against Evil Maid Attack:

• Video surveillance on critical premises 24/7

• Locked doors and/or more-or-less armed guards

80
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Heuristic Attack
A part of many cryptographic attacks, the heuristic attack simply consists
of a malicious actor using well-established password-enhancement
practices preferred by many. Users often opt to add numbers either to
the beginning or the end of their passwords, hoping it will make it more
resistant to attacks (e.g., “password” vs. “password123” or “123password”).
While somewhat better than a simple dictionary-picked password, a more
effective approach is to ditch the dictionary altogether.
Countermeasures Against Heuristic Attacks:

• Do not enter numbers in sequences into your

passwords (e.g., hello123).

• Go for more obscure symbols when it comes to your

key security (e.g., %&/^).

Man-in-the-Middle (MITM)
Man-in-the-middle is a type of attack where an attacker secretly delivers
and potentially tampers with the communications between two parties
who are unaware of said attacker’s actions. The malicious actor might be
able to fully convince either or both parties they are sending data to each
other. We are not only talking about tampering with mail or messages.
Man-in-the-middle attacks can take place on a binary level where, instead
of two human parties, an attacker can convince a device or system that he
or she is the legitimate party to send its data to.
There are two major defensive strategies against man-in-the-
middle attacks: authentication and tampering detection. Encrypted
systems with robust authentication (i.e., SSL/TLS) are virtually immune
to these types of attacks. The technique of tampering detection focuses
on anomalies in latency.

81
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Countermeasures Against Man-in-the-Middle Attacks:

• Utilizing exclusively public-key (i.e., asymmetric)

encryption, such as RSA or ElGamal

• Relying only on trusted third-party certificates with

SSL/TLS

Meet-in-the-Middle
Not to be confused with man-in-the-middle, a meet-in-the-middle
attack is used in environments where an encryption algorithm using
multiple layers and keys has been implemented. Put simply, in this type
of attack, a malicious actor targets both the plaintext and the ciphertext
simultaneously, hoping to “meet in the middle” of a dataset to decrypt it.
This is a known plaintext attack (see the “Cryptographic Attack Models”
section).
A mostly theoretical threat, meet-in-the-middle works best in
scenarios such as international or corporate espionage. It could be
described as the bigger, more cantankerous brother of the brute-force
attack. This type of attack is a good reason why ciphers like the Triple DES,
as robust as they sound, may not be ideal choices after all. Also, meet-in-­
the-middle attacks can be difficult to detect; therefore, prevention is the
way to go.
Countermeasures Against Meet-in-the-Middle Attacks:

• Installing an either software- or hardware-based

intrusion detection system (IDS). As efficient as these
solutions can be, they are also prone to give false
alarms. Although similar to traditional firewalls, an IDS
is not the same thing.

• Steering clear of algorithms such as Double or Triple

DES which use multiple keys and encryption phases.

82
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Rainbow Table Attack

A rainbow table is a database used to facilitate breaking passwords’ hash
values. It’s basically a dictionary consisting of passwords and their hashes.
A rainbow table is more time-effective than many other cryptographic
attacks, especially those of the brute-force variety, as all of its hash values
used are precalculated. Rainbow tables were discovered by cryptographer
Philippe Oechslin.
Many online service providers only store password hashes on their
servers and not the keys themselves. So an exact password needn’t be
extracted; whenever hash values match, the transaction is authenticated.

A crucial concept in cryptanalysis, a time-memory trade-off simply

means the malicious parties’ prioritization of a system’s memory-­
related resources over time-related ones – or vice versa.

As dreamy as rainbow tables sound from a malicious actor’s

perspective, they have some disadvantages. Namely, a robust
rainbow table can eat up a hefty piece of storage media. Under some
circumstances, they may include the hash value of nearly every
imaginable password, after all.
One of the most notorious tools in the world of rainbow tables is a
piece of software called RainbowCrack, devised by cryptographer Zhu
Shuanglei. Operating in the Microsoft Windows and Linux environments,
the tool even supports video card (i.e., GPU) accelerated processing for
quite a cryptanalytical punch.

83
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Countermeasures Against Rainbow Table Attacks:

• Users: pick strong (i.e., long and complicated)

passwords only. System administrators: choose to
implement newer and more secure hashing algorithms,
such as SHA-256 or SHA-3. Also, secure your hash value
database with every means at your disposal, including
budgeting for physical security.

• Salting and/or peppering as described in Chapter 3

(e.g., adding random data to hash values and
passwords). This is usually a rather devastating
response against these types of attacks.

• Implementing key stretching, which refers to adding

multiple passes of salted hash data into the hash
function.

R
 eplay Attack
A replay attack is a type of simple man-in-the-middle or eavesdropping
approach. This type of attack consists of a malicious party retransmitting
valid credentials into a system, thereby gaining access to it. In theory, a
replay attack can be therefore used to circumvent even the strongest of
encryption schemes.
Countermeasures Against Replay Attacks:

• Using a session ID approach, where each run of a

program is assigned a random, one-time token; a
malicious party simply couldn’t replicate this to
commence a replay attack later.
• Using timestamps, where “the lines are open” only for a
brief time window.

84
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Related Key Attack

Whenever a malicious actor can observe multiple keys/passwords
being used in a cryptographic context, he or she may be eventually able
to decrypt a secure system. This is done by discovering mathematical
consistencies between the data in the keys and is called a related key
attack. This is mostly a theoretical threat especially against newer
encryption algorithms like the AES.
Best countermeasure Against Related Key Attacks:

• Using random-key generation approaches, such as a

key derivation function (KDF). A KDF derives multiple
keys, whenever desired, from a single master key using
a pseudorandom function.

In cryptography, a pseudorandom function (PRF) refers to one of the most

robust means of generating random numbers. It’s not the same as a
pseudorandom generator (PRG). A PRG offers a single output at random
if the input was chosen at random. Now, with a PRF all of its outputs
seem random regardless of how the corresponding inputs were chosen.

R
 ubber-Hose Attack
Perhaps the crudest type of cryptanalysis, rubber-hose attacks refer to
subjecting the owner of a key/password to coercion or physical violence
to extract said information. Cryptography isn’t always diplomatic. We’ll be
looking at legal aspects and the rights of password holders in Chapter 7.
Countermeasures Against Rubber-Hose Attacks:

• Staying out of countries with poor human rights

records

• Choosing your friends carefully

85
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Side Channel Attack (SCA)

A side channel attack doesn’t utilize any weaknesses in a system, rather it
focuses on its actual implementation and what attack vectors that offers.
There are several categories of side channel attacks including those based
on timing of data transfer, data remanence, and electromagnetic leakage
(see Table 5-1).
In theory, a successful side channel attack can bypass encryption
of any strength as no cracking of the cryptographic scheme has to be
attempted. It’s a scary thought. Luckily effective countermeasures exist.

Table 5-1. Some typical cryptographic side channel attacks

Type Area of Focus Skill Level
Required

Acoustic Audio (e.g., user keystrokes) High

Data remanence Critical data left on storage media Low
(e.g., hard drives)
Electromagnetic EMF emissions from computer monitors High
(EMF)
Optical Visual sightings of target system Low/high
components, advanced photon analysis
Power analysis Changes in a device’s electricity usage High
Timing A system’s internal data transfers High

Countermeasures Against Side Channel Attacks (SCAs):

86
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Due to the nature and wide variety of SCA attacks, you’ll need a
plethora of defensive strategies to counter them successfully; you should
implement as many of these as you can. The following is an overview
of these techniques. They will be discussed in more detail in the next
chapters.

• Acoustic SCAs not only involve keyboard noises,

but in some cases also sounds emitted by computer
hardware, such as sounds from the CPU and hard
drives. These can be used to deduce information about
an encrypted system potentially compromising it.

For these types of attacks, a complete soundproofing

solution with a white noise generator should be
installed in critical locations. White noise is a type of
random audio signal with equal intensity at different
frequencies, familiar to some as “static” and similar
to an untuned radio.

• Electromagnetic SCAs focus on detecting patterns in

the electromagnetic radiation emitted by electronic
devices using specialized hardware and software.
These attacks may be quite hard to detect as they are by
nature un-invasive.

Electromagnetic SCAs, including government

TEMPEST attacks, can be almost completely
defeated by a Faraday cage; this is an isolation
chamber used for blocking electromagnetic fields
invented by Michael Faraday back in 1836. You
can isolate fairly large areas from EMF signals with
these cages and fill them with any kind of device,
and personnel, you feel like; they are quite safe
for human use. Also, Faraday cages can be used to
protect against Mother Nature’s lightning attacks.

87
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

• Distance works well to decrease the amount of data

a bad actor can gather using these types of attacks.
Keeping a wide, secure perimeter around your servers
and/or workstations may do the trick.

TEMPEST (Telecommunications Electronics Materials Protected from

Emanating Spurious Transmissions) is an NSA specification dealing
with data leakage through radio waves, vibration, EMF, or sound. It
covers both the attack and defense aspects of this phenomenon.

• Data remanence SCAs can be dealt with rather

simple means. A free, third-party disk eraser/wiper
software will suffice in most cases. Several effective
wiping algorithms have been devised over the years;
mere file deletion or drive formatting does not suffice.
Deleted files, whether encrypted or not, can linger in
an operating system for weeks before being overwritten
by new data. Again, formatting the drive will also not
usually guarantee all critical files are permanently
erased.
For a long time, the de facto algorithm for secure file
wiping was the US Department of Defense standard
5220.22-M, which uses a three-step process for
erasing data. First, a mass storage device is filled
with binary zeros. This is followed by writing it full of
binary ones. Finally, it’s filled with random patterns
of binary data. With the advent of solid-state drives
(SSDs), this approach is no longer considered up
to par. However, the DoD standard still works for
traditional hard drives for the most part.

88
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

SSD devices should be erased with specialized

software, usually provided by the drive
manufacturer (e.g., Samsung or OCZ). Other data
wiping software generally only works traditional,
mechanical hard drives.

For truly vigorous data destruction, one can

physically decimate hard drives and other forms of
mass media by, say, dropping them into a steel mill
blast furnace – or volcano. Simply hammering or
breaking apart a hard drive may not be enough to
guarantee the data isn’t recoverable as there are very
advanced (although expensive) laboratories that
can reassemble a shattered drive in no time.

• Optical SCAs range from simple hidden high-­

resolution video cameras to advanced, usually
government-provided devices which actually spy on
photons inside a computer to deduce information;
the latter scenario should only concern you if you’re
working at a very shady organization indeed.

The detection and removal of hidden cameras, which

may be extremely small as of 2020, naturally works
fine against the simpler variety of optical SCAs.

You should invest in special darkened screens for

all of your monitors to further hinder any spying
attempts from dubious visitors to your premises.

• With power analysis SCAs, one can deduce which

mathematical operation a device is processing, in
binary digits (i.e., zeros or ones), by tracing a processor’s
power use patterns. This is known to work for figuring
out data encrypted with older algorithms, such as
the RSA, as well as the de facto AES. Tools like digital
89
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

oscilloscopes are used for this type of attack. Now, there

are a variety of both hardware- and software-based
countermeasures against this subset of SCAs.

• Power analysis SCAs can be made more difficult by

implementing electronic filters which attenuate the
detectable signals to a bare minimum; this hinders
the ability of an oscilloscope to detect elements
detrimental to a cryptographic system. These filters
can be either passive, consisting of analog electronic
components, or active (i.e., based on amplifying parts
requiring external power).

• Power-line filters work to reduce the power supply

noise found in most electronic systems. This technique
can even out the peaks and valleys in a signal needed
for a successful power trace.

• When it comes to the software side of things,

randomness is your friend. Injecting a signal with
random instructions from a microcontroller can
confuse an attacker and provide a good additional layer
to your cryptographic security.

• S-box (i.e., substitution-box) operations found in

algorithms like the AES don’t need to be performed in
any specific order (see Chapter 3 for a reminder on this
phase in a round of AES). Putting these operations in
a random order is therefore beneficial. This technique
will either completely thwart an attack or at least
greatly add to the amount of resources an attacker
needs to break into a system. S-box shuffling is also very
time- and energy-efficient, more so than the approach
of adding random instructions into the proceedings.

90
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

• Timing SCAs examine the delays in cryptographic

operations. Different algorithms may have recognizable
characteristics which can be exploited to compromise
a cryptosystem. However, malicious actors attempting
this type of attack usually need detailed information on
the system such as the make of the CPU/processor and
the overall system design paradigm being used.

• Timing SCAs can be foiled, in select cases, by keeping the

hardware internals of a system hidden. The technique is
known as security through obscurity, which has been a
widely rejected approach since the nineteenth century.
Skilled malicious actors can discover the makeup of any
hardware rather trivially in no time.

• Blinding is a technique which can protect an

asymmetric cryptographic system (i.e., a public-key
scheme such as RSA or ElGamal) against timing SCAs.
In this context blinding works to add random elements
into an algorithm’s input which are not entirely
known by any single party. There are several ways to
implement cryptography-related blinding and some
are more efficient than others.

Cyberthreats Not Specific to Cryptography

We’ll now explore some common threats not specifically designed against
encrypted systems. As mighty as they seem, encrypted systems aren’t
immune to any of these attacks; when a nonmalicious user has entered the
right password and booted up a computer, online malware is as serious a
threat as on a completely nonencrypted system.

91
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Malware
A portmanteau for “malicious software,” malware is simply any type of
software which causes harm to a system, from minor annoyances to taking
full control. Any organization, minor or major, can be taken down with a
clever enough malware. Now, there are numerous types of malware, some
of which we’ll go through next.

Trojan Horse
Named after the ancient Greek story, a Trojan horse is at first a
seemingly harmless piece of software which turns out to be bona
fide malware when executed. Often, Trojan horses are presented as
innocent or even useful downloads in the form of email attachments
from an unknown actor, a fake software update, or a fraudulent
advertisement on a website.
Not all Trojan horses are created by your average hackers; many
governments actually use them as a form of cyber-warfare and espionage.

Keylogger
Basically, this type of malware exists to collect users’ keystrokes to
gather usernames, passwords, or other information useful to the
attacker (such as financial information). Needless to say, this can
entail a whole host of issues from hijacked social media accounts to
online banking trouble. Most keyloggers are software-based, although
hardware-based units also exist. There are also some advanced ones
which actually use an open microphone and an acoustic analysis to
deduce which keys were pressed.

92
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Man-in-the-Browser (MITB)
This type of threat takes over a web browser using its potential
vulnerabilities. It’s a remote Trojan horse able to modify the contents of
web pages from the user’s perspective. Worst of all, an MITB is capable of
interfering with online bank transfers and the amounts of currency they
process. In fact, this type of attack is considered one of the worst threats to
secure online banking, since it’s often completely invisible to the user.

Boy-in-the-Browser (BITB)
A smaller-scale version of the man-in-the-browser attack also exists, called
the boy-in-the-browser attack. BITBs target visitors to specific malicious
websites. A type of malware is forcefully installed to change a user’s
computer’s network traffic to become a part of a man-in-the-middle attack
in the online realm. After the damage has been done, the program might
delete itself, making its detection nearly impossible.

Botnet
Consisting of a large number of connected devices and functioning online,
a botnet is in essence a centrally controlled “army” of said devices usually
used for malicious purposes. A bot refers to an infected computer or
smartphone. Botnets can yield a lot of digital leverage and can consists of
millions of bots; the user may not even be aware that his or her device has
been compromised. For one, email spammers love their botnets. Also, they
are used to distribute Trojan horses and other malware online.

Infected systems that are a part of a botnet are usually called zombie
computers.

93
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack

One of the most common and frustrating attacks an organization can
face is an attack called distributed denial of service. This online offense
is executed using large botnets which exhaust a website of its resources,
resulting in the whole site crashing down and offering very little apart
from an error message to its visitors. This can be devastating for critical
businesses dealing in online banking, health care, and others. In 2012 six
major US banks, including Bank of America, experienced issues thanks to
a large-scale distributed denial-of-service attack. A smaller-scale variety
of this attack, denial of service (DoS), exists; these may target smaller
organizations from time to time. Attacks of this type often originate from a
smaller number of sources.

Phishing Attack
Whenever a malignant piece of software or website poses as a legitimate
party, it’s called phishing. A very popular type of cyber-scam, this kind of
attack is used to “fish” for usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and
other sensitive data from unsuspecting users thinking they’re dealing with
genuine businesses.
General-purpose mass phishing aside, there are several more unique
techniques for this attack. Whaling refers to targeting high-profile targets,
such as politicians or corporate executives. This type of approach can take
the form of a well-written subpoena or other legal document and often
results in sensitive data or a hefty sum of money sliding into the hands of a
malicious actor. Any critical data obtained from a high-profile individual is
naturally worth quite a tad in the black market. Whaling is sometimes also
referred to as business email compromise (BEC).

94
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

One of the biggest examples of whale phishing was the 2016 incident
when the then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign head
John Podesta was tricked to hand over his email account password
by malicious actors. The phishing email simply told Podesta his Gmail
account had been hacked (by actors in Ukraine, no less) and that he
needed to change the password – by clicking a detrimental link.

Spear phishing is simply the malicious act of using a personalized

approach for gaining information or financial gain. The social media
revolution fueled this type of attack due to the considerable amount of
individuals who release a large amount of data about their lives on a daily
basis. A spear phisher may pose as a person’s colleague, friend, or even
spouse to extract money or other resources.
Possibly the hardest to detect, clone phishing is the act of intercepting
legitimate communications, such as email, and injecting it with a
malicious attachment, message, or link. An email may seem to originate
from a perfectly legitimate party but was in fact tampered with by a
malicious third party. Usually the bad sender’s email address is either a
variation of the original sender’s address or a straight-up nonsensical one;
always pay attention to these details.
Bad actors on their way into the world of phishing benefit greatly
from the so-called phishing kits. These are basically more or less
authentic-looking duplicates of websites by well-known businesses, such
as Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft. Combined with large mailing lists,
perhaps obtained from the seedier parts of the Internet, these kits offer
many potential victims for wannabe cybercriminals. Faked websites using
phishing kits tend to last a very short period of time online. However, in a
span of 24 hours or even less, these sites can inflict a great deal of harm to a
plethora of individuals and organizations; new ones are created on a daily,
if not on an hourly, basis.

95
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Lastly, there’s yet another type of phishing attack known as pharming,

which deals with the faking of Domain Name Service (DNS) entries.
This is the technology which translates Internet Protocol (IP) addresses
(e.g., 84.234.64.207) preferred by electronic devices into something more
pleasant to the human eye (e.g., robertciesla.com). Pharming transports a
user, who entered a perfectly legitimate website address, into a malicious
site dedicated for harvesting personal information. In some cases, these
imitation sites are relatively easy to spot due to grammatical mistakes or
other design flaws. A pharming site can also be visually perfectly similar
when compared to its legitimate counterpart.
The various types of phishing attacks aren’t limited to fake emails and
websites. Cybercriminals use the full range of tools at their disposal, such
as social media platforms, instant messaging services, and even faked
online advertisements. Stay alert and watch out for even the smallest of
discrepancies in tone, design, and sender identity in all of your online
communications.

Policeware
Many governments are known to spy on their citizens. There’s a
specialized type of software for this purpose which is often referred to as
policeware. Once installed on a citizen’s/suspect’s computer, it can be very
hard to detect and remove; many makers of anti-malware products may or
may not have co-operated with law enforcement to guarantee this.
Perhaps the first large-scale example of policeware was Carnivore
(later renamed DCS1000), devised by the FBI in the late 1990s and
used primarily for email surveillance. It consisted of a Windows-based
computer physically set up at a place of interest, usually at an Internet
Service Provider (ISP) server room.

96
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

The FBI also created a software-based eavesdropping solution called

Magic Lantern, first reported in 2001. A Trojan at heart, the software was/is
usually distributed as an email attachment and it operates as a keylogger,
for one.
More recently, the FBI have devised yet another piece of policeware
called Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier (CIPAV). The
exact workings of this software aren’t available, but it’s said to collect
a wide variety of information about the system it’s installed on – and
report back to the FBI. CIPAV is known to at least record any outbound
communications, last visited website, type of operating system, and
presently logged-in user account name. Hopefully mostly used to
prevent crime, CIPAV has no place on a law-abiding citizen’s computer.
Another somewhat notorious piece of surveillance software is
called FinFisher. Surfacing sometime around 2011, it’s been used by
the governments of Canada, Egypt, Finland, Germany, India, and the
United States, to name just six. FinFisher was created by Gamma Group,
whose business shows no signs of declining. Human rights organizations
worldwide have criticized the company’s offerings, since they are used by
several countries with lacking human rights records.

Rootkit
A very serious type of malware, rootkits mask themselves from the user –
and most anti-malware software. Rootkits can be either automated,
roaming the Internet looking for systems to compromise, or they can be
installed by individual actors for any type of malicious purpose.
Some notorious rootkits include Flame (discovered in 2012), which
was used for cyber-espionage in the Middle East, and ZeroAccess
(discovered in 2011), which infected two million computers to create a
massive botnet with them.

97
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Even large corporations can be guilty of installing rootkits on

the devices of their clientele. The biggest such case was the copy-
protection scandal of 2005 coming from Sony BMG. Upon inserting
a CD into a computer, a rootkit was silently installed on the system,
greatly reducing its level of security against actual malware as well as
eavesdropping on the usage habits of the user. The corporation first
utilized a copy-protection scheme known as Extended Copy Protection
(XCP) and later one known as MediaMax CD-3; both of these were
basically malicious software.
While originally intended as a type of efficient copy-protection
software, Sony BMG’s rootkits compromised approximately 22 million
users. This resulted in class-action lawsuits by litigators from the states of
Texas, New York, and California.

Spyware
Closely related to policeware, spyware is pretty much the same thing – except
it’s usually coming from malicious, nongovernmental actors. Identity theft
thrives from this type of malware; a person’s identity and credit card numbers
are well sought after among cybercriminals. Spyware usually operates fully
covertly on an unsuspecting user’s devices.
Credit card numbers aside, things that spyware can leak include
usernames, passwords, financial records, and Internet browsing history.
For purposes of blackmail, these types of malicious programs are often a
cybercriminal’s first choice. According to the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), even back in 2003 more than 27.3 million Americans had been
victims of identity theft of which a considerable portion was facilitated by
spyware.

98
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

V
 irus
A virus is a type of self-replicating malware which can spread rapidly
especially over online environments, potentially infecting tens of millions
of computers and other devices. As of 2020 (and up until now), most
viruses target Microsoft Windows operating systems. Since Windows is a
very popular choice for organizations of all sizes, viruses cause financial
losses of several billion dollars a year due to causing slowdowns, system
crashes, and many other time-consuming scenarios. It’s to be noted
viruses do not self-execute; a user has to activate them.
Computer viruses can be thought of as a form of semi-intelligent
artificial life. The first software program that ticks most of the boxes for
being a virus was The Creeper System written by software developer Bob
Thomas in 1971. However, the program did very little damage, simply
displaying the message “I’m the creeper: catch me if you can” on infected
computers of the time.

Signs your system may be infected with a virus/malware include

a more sluggish computer, the introduction of software you never
installed on your desktop, a browser home page you can’t reset,
and strange email sent from your email account(s). Other symptoms
include annoying pop-ups and sudden shutdowns of your favorite
programs.

W
 orm
Closely related to a virus is a worm, which is simply not only self-­
replicating but also automatically spreading and self-executing type of
malicious software. Worms often spread through email and don’t need
any user interaction to activate themselves. They are among the most
dangerous form of malware (see Table 5-2).

99
Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Table 5-2. Some well-known worms and other types of malicious

software from recent years
Name Type Year OS Damage Caused
Found Affected

Flashback Trojan Horse 2011 MacOS Harvested usernames &

passwords
StuxNet Worm 2010 Windows Possibly ruined one-fifth of Iran’s
nuclear centrifuges
MyDoom Email-­worm 2004 Windows Cost $38 billion to businesses
ILOVEYOU Email-­worm 2000 Windows Damaged countless users’ files
Bliss Virus 1997 Linux Demonstrated Linux isn’t immune
to viruses (being mostly harmless)

R
 ansomware
As a combination of a Trojan horse and a forced encryption of one’s
computer, ransomware is extremely dangerous and almost impossible to
crack. Once the user executes an innocent-seeming file (i.e., the Trojan
horse), the malware encrypts the system and prompts the user to pay a
sum of money to have it decrypted (see Figure 5-2). Around 181.5 million
ransomware attacks took place in the first six months of 2018 alone.

100
 Chapter 5 Common Attacks Against Cryptographic Systems

Figure 5-2. A prompt from the notorious Cryptolocker ransomware

There are plenty of lower-tier ransomware programs out there which

can be removed with some know-how, but more advanced varieties of
ransomware are only theoretically disposed of. Never execute, or allow your
colleagues to execute, programs you’re not absolutely comfortable with.

In Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have hopefully gained awareness of
the following:
• The main four cryptographic attack models

• What linear and differential cryptanalysis refer to

• The basics of the most common attacks against

cryptographic systems and which countermeasures
work best against them
• What various types of malware there are and the basics
of their operation

In the next chapter we’ll take a good gander at how to create near
impenetrable contemporary systems using encryption and other approaches.

101
CHAPTER 6

Creating Extremely
Secure Encrypted
Systems
Like you may remember, in Chapter 4 we took a quick glance at
encryption solutions for three of the most popular operating systems
as of 2020: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and Linux. In this chapter we’ll
not only expand on this topic, but also cover the best general security
measures available for these operating systems in detail. We’ll tackle
the best anti-malware and other related solutions of today, in both
software and hardware. After all, there’s no effective cryptography
without defensive technologies against every variety of serious
malware. Feel free to implement as many of these countermeasures as
you can.
Due to the possibility of backdoors, in this chapter we’ll also have a
focus on open source solutions for all software presented. Closed-source
encryption software will still be featured as it does have its uses, even
when/if backdoored.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 103

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_6
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

On Multilayer Encryption

As it stands, the mighty Advanced Encryption Algorithm (AES) is pretty
much invincible until the unforeseeable future. Using a single layer of AES
should be enough for even the most fervent cryptographers. However,
there is an ongoing debate over the use of multilayered encryption. This
approach and its associated concepts will be discussed next.
On the surface additional layers of encryption seem like great
countermeasures against cryptographic attacks. Now, there are two
schools of thought on this. Some proponents of multilayer encryption
rightfully claim that in theory each additional implementation of an
encrypting algorithm fortifies a dataset considerably. Others feel each such
implementation only adds attack vectors for malicious actors to utilize. In
addition, using numerous encryption algorithms simultaneously creates
more strain on a system’s resources, whether it seems negligible or not
to involve human actors. Still, backdoors in closed-source commercial
encryption products, such as Windows BitLocker, are a legitimate concern
for many cryptographers.

Provided well-established algorithms such as AES are used, the

biggest threat to a secure system lies in malicious software, often
facilitated by human incompetence. This is why a large section
of this chapter is dedicated to presenting the most effective
countermeasures against malware known in 2020.

Whether one is suspicious of commercial encryption products or not,

such a full-disk encryption is a great way to fend off data leaks obtained
during burglaries and many forms of espionage. The government is
unlikely to side with the offenders in these cases. Now, as demonstrated
in Chapter 4, one solution against those pesky backdoors is to store your

104
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

most delicate data within secure file containers. These should be naturally
encrypted with open source solutions only, such as the much loved
VeraCrypt. A double layer of, say, BitLocker and file containers consisting
of another dose of 256-bit AES data is a tough nut to crack for any actor,
whether highly skilled and malicious or not.
Now, should one implement multilayer encryption, some practices
should be adhered to. For one, the passwords for each layer should be
completely different and under no circumstance share patterns in any
way. Also, weak algorithms for both encryption and hashing should
be steered clear of. These include the Digital Encryption Standard
(DES) in all of its varieties, as well as the SHA-1 and MD5. The public-
key mammoth that is the RSA algorithm, while not obsolete, doesn’t
represent the cutting edge in encryption any longer; it has some issues
in both security and performance. Some cryptographers suggest either
using RSA at its higher key sizes of 2048 bits (or more) or abandoning
it altogether. Remember, the cryptographic quantum revolution is
right around the corner as of 2020. Its first casualty may very well be
algorithms like the once-venerable RSA.

Small vs. Big Business Readiness

While organizations of all sizes obviously need to implement proper
security measures both online and in the traditional sense, there’s often
a different approach to these matters when it comes to smaller and
established businesses. Larger enterprises have much more resources to
spare, while the smaller actors tend to prioritize growth instead of security.
This chapter is primarily for these less established business owners/
organizations, who may have not had the opportunity to outsource their
cybersecurity solutions yet.

105
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Now, eventually all organizations should have the following safeguards

in place; and the sooner, the better:

• A well-trained staff. Your crew needs to be savvy to

face the many threats the Internet throws at them. For
one, bringing one’s own online-capable devices into
work may create issues with organizational security
and should be addressed.

• Update awareness. Out-of-date security software is

usually useless. Make sure yours doesn’t get to that
point. Apply reliable vendor patches whenever they
arrive.

• Secure B2B networks. Even if your organization is up

to speed when it comes to the latest in cybersecurity,
doing business with a compromised party may infect
your systems as well. The Internet at large is not the
only potential infected agent. Care must be taken
with robust protocols and digital hygiene must be
considered in B2B communications as well.

• Compartmentalization. All data in your organization

should be accessible on a need-to-know basis only.
Only trusted IT staff should be granted with user
accounts which allow software installation.

A Refresher on Network Security

Many cryptographic attack vectors are coming from an online
environment. It makes sense to know at least the basics of current-day
network hardware security which we’ll delve into next.

106
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

N
 etworks and Routers
Like you probably know, an interconnected series of devices sharing
data using specific protocols constitutes a network. This can be a large
corporate solution consisting of thousands of devices or a small home
network consisting of exactly one router and a mere handful of devices,
usually including a desktop computer (i.e., a typical local area network,
or LAN). The Internet is basically one large network of servers and
clients.
Now, a router is an important piece of hardware which transmits
data between devices in a network. Website data, email, and other
information coming in from the Internet enter a router in the form of
data packets. All of these packets contain destination information (i.e.,
an Internet protocol address or IP address) which naturally belong to the
device which made the request. Within a matter of seconds, these data
packets find their way from the Internet into the router, which directs
them toward a connected device.
There are a few important settings in routers which you need to pay
close attention to; if such a device is compromised, it can infect a whole
network, after all.

• First, you need to access the router’s console. This

is usually done by typing in a default IP address into a
web browser on a device connected to the network (see
Figure 6-1). There are a variety of these IP addresses as
they vary between hardware manufacturers. A one-­
size-­fits-all solution isn’t unfortunately available. For
example, some routers accept 192.168.1.1, while others
work with 192.168.0.1.

• In addition to the default IP address, you also need a

username and a password to access the router console.
See Table 6-1 for some common combinations.

107
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Figure 6-1. A partial router console screen of a Zyxel-brand device

Table 6-1. Some common default router usernames and passwords

as of Q2 2020
Manufacturer Default IP Address Default Username Default Password

Asus 192.168.1.1 admin admin

Belkin 192.168.2.1 admin admin
Digicom 192.168.1.254 admin Michelangelo
Huawei/SUN/ZTE 192.168.0.1 admin admin
(continued)

108
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Table 6-1 . (continued)

Manufacturer Default IP Address Default Username Default Password

Samsung 192.168.0.1 admin password

Telco Systems 192.168.0.1 telco telco
Zcom 192.168.0.1 root admin
Zyxel 192.168.1.1 admin 1234

Usually the router’s backside contains a sticker with the default

username and password. If none of the preceding combinations
work and/or you can’t find the aforementioned sticker, refer to the
manufacturer’s website.

• Next, you need to change the router’s default

password into a stronger one. Remember the makings
of a strong password: length, complexity, and not using
a dictionary for inspiration.

• When using Wi-Fi, make sure the strongest available

encryption is in use. Navigate to your router console’s
wireless page; it’s usually listed under Wireless LAN or
something to that effect.

• For your Wi-Fi encryption, you’ll probably have the

choice of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocol in its
three incarnations. The original WPA aside, you have
the ubiquitous WPA2 and, in the case of newer routers,
the WPA3 of 2018. While WPA2 has vulnerabilities, it’s
not practically obsolete like WPA. Always choose the
latest possible version of this protocol.

109
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• Many older network devices also offer Wired Equivalent

Privacy (WEP) as an option. This standard was
introduced in 1999 and came originally with mere 64-­
bit key length. WEP was later bolstered with 128- and
256-bit key lengths, but it remains a compromised
protocol you should avoid. If your hardware only offers
you this method for your Wi-Fi security, it’s time to
upgrade your routers.

• Disable remote access and Universal Plug and Play.

The last thing you want is someone outside of your
network to administer your router settings. In some
devices remote access might enabled by default. Use
the console to untick the box on this feature which is
usually listed simply under Remote Management or
Remote MGMT. Another feature you should seriously
consider disabling is Universal Plug and Play (uPnP).
For one, a router with uPnP enabled may offer a
method for hackers to bypass your device’s firewall
entirely.

• Switch off Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) as soon as

you can. This feature exists to facilitate a quick one-­
button solution for setting up a wireless network.
Aimed mostly at the less geeky users, WPS is actually
a major security problem in many cases. The system
is implemented using either a four-digit PIN code
or a push-button-connect approach. The latter is
very susceptible to brute-force attacks, while having
a malicious actor on the premises of your router
neutralizes the former’s effectiveness.

110
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• Get acquainted with network address translation

(NAT). This is a technique which takes a single public
IP address and shares it with a multitude of connected
devices using a router/firewall. For example, a router
in a network might have the local IP of 192.168.1.1 and
a public one of, say, 86.1.70.30 as assigned by your
Internet service provider, visible for all the websites
you or your employees visit using this setup. Now,
under NAT the router will assign local IP addresses for
any devices connected to it, for example, 192.168.1.2
for your desktop and 192.168.1.3 for your colleague’s
tablet (see Figure 6-2). These IP addresses will remain
clandestine from the public at large.

Figure 6-2. A simple local area network using the NAT technique

Better security aside, NAT allows for the conservation of limited

amount of IPv4 addresses. Using a 32-bit address space, the IPv4
specification limits the global number of different public IP addresses
to some 4.2 billion, still largely in use. Without unique IP addresses, the
Internet can’t function properly.

111
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• How to make sure your router is running on NAT?

Make sure the device uses routing instead of bridging
for its mode of operation. This is usually the default
setting. With bridging, you lose NAT in exchange
for somewhat faster traffic flow; this is generally not
recommended.

• Update your router’s firmware. The firmware in a

router is a writeable chunk of nonvolatile memory
which holds the device’s operating system. If you’re
running your device on old firmware, chances are
you’re either missing out on some good features or
flat-­out compromising your security. You’ll find the
latest firmware updates on your router’s manufacturer’s
website usually under Support ➤ Firmware.

• Make MAC filtering your best friend. All networking

devices, including routers and smartphones, have a
unique media access control (MAC) address. It consists
of six groups of hexadecimal values separated by
colons and looks something like this: b8:66:4c:f4:3d:6c.
For now, a MAC is allocated from a 48-bit address
space. This allows for some 281 trillion unique strings
and is designed to last us until 2080. A newer 64-bit
implementation for MACs has been devised, but not
yet widely adopted.

• MAC filtering is a technique where only safe hardware,

identified through their unique MAC addresses, is
allowed to access a local area network. In other words,
a MAC filter is a user-maintained whitelist which
blocks everything except your trusted devices; you
administer it usually from your router console under

112
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Wireless Settings or a similarly titled panel. Although

a potentially arduous technique, using a MAC filter
puts some major obstacles between malicious actors
snooping on Wi-Fi and your network.

Unlike one might assume, MAC addresses are not an Apple-­

specific invention by any means; rather it is a universally embraced
technology for all networking devices devised by Xerox Network
Systems.

• Become mysterious by concealing your wireless

connection. Many routers offer the option of hiding
the name of your wireless network or the service set
identifier (SSID). You should enable this feature. At
the very least, change your Wi-Fi’s default name, as
not doing this might inform your potential attackers
of the make of your router, facilitating their nefarious
activities.

• Some devices allow you to set the broadcasting power

of your router, usually donated in percentages. Try
dropping that from 100% down to whichever amount
still gets picked up by your devices.

• Finally, lock up your routers in secure areas of your

home or office to make physical access to them as
difficult as possible. Only you and/or your trusted
system administrators need to service them.

• Change your DNS settings. Like you may know, Domain

Name Service (DNS) is a protocol which controls the
translation of IP addresses, which devices like, into

113
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

domain names, which humans tend to prefer

(e.g., www.apress.com). While the default DNS settings
(usually provided by one’s Internet service provider) work
just fine, there are better alternatives out there. Many
third-party DNS products offer faster data transmission
and added security than their default counterparts; they
often block malicious websites from loading altogether
(see Table 6-2). Changing your DNS is simple and can
be done either in router devices (recommended) or on a
software level within an operating system.

Table 6-2. Some popular third-party providers of DNS as of Q2 2020

DNS IP Addresses (Primary/ Notes
Provider Secondary)

Quad9.net 9.9.9.9, 149.112.112.112 Blocks malicious domains, collects

anonymous usage and geolocation
data, cooperates with IBM X-Force for
state-of-­the-art threat intelligence
Open DNS Home: 208.67.222.222, Claims 100% uptime, FamilyShield
208.67.220.220 DNS is preconfigured to block adult
FamilyShield: content
208.67.222.222,
208.67.220.220
Google Public 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 Provides global coverage for a fast
DNS service to a worldwide clientele,
collects user data
Verisign 64.6.64.6, 64.6.65.6 Claims no user data is ever sold to
Public DNS 3rd parties

114
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• Consider investing in a hardware-based firewall for

your organization. While usually overkill for home
users, organizations and businesses shouldn’t spend
a day online without a dedicated hardware firewall.
While quite expensive, these units offer a plethora of
benefits to software- or router-based solutions. Unlike
their software-based brethren, hardware firewalls are
online 24/7; they employ more sophisticated forms of
traffic analysis and are generally more apt at detecting
malicious activities. Configuring a single hardware
unit instead of every individual computer running
a software firewall saves a lot of time in business
settings. Also, larger organizations depending solely
on routers for blocking nefarious online elements
often end up bottlenecking their data traffic. Many
hardware firewalls also come with extensive support
for virtual private networks, which are discussed
next. This allows secure remote access by trusted
employees, for one.

• Popular manufacturers of business-oriented hardware

firewall units include Netgear, Cisco, Juniper, Zyxel, and
Netgate.

When configured correctly, the different varieties of firewalls aren’t

usually mutually exclusive. Even with a hardware firewall guarding
your network, you should have a secondary system in place. Popular
operating systems all have their built-in software firewalls in 2020.
A reliable third-party software-based solution should also do the trick.
We’ll discuss some of these later in this chapter.

115
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

IPv6
IPv4 is slowly being superseded by IPv6, a 128-bit specification with
approximately 340 undecillion (i.e., 340 followed by a whopping 36 zeros)
unique IP addresses. This should last us a while, unless we somehow
colonize numerous other planets in the very near future and the colonists
breed on them rather uncontrollably.
IPv6 looks something like this: 09f7:9cd0:0ed0:1538:0000:0000:7360:0090.
Compared to the quaint dot-separated four-octet notation of IPv4, this may
seem rather intimidating to us humans. However, we can at least remove
all leading zeros from IPv6 addresses, changing our example earlier to
9f7:9cd0:ed0:1538:::7360:90. That’s slightly more memorable.
During 2020, around 25–30% of the Internet was provided in IPv6
(Internet Society, 2020). These numbers are in flux due to the still
somewhat maturing technology. Organizations and individuals have been
increasingly provided with IPv6 support in both network devices and
operating systems since 1998. Dating back to Windows Vista, Microsoft
began offering IPv6 support out of the box, while on the Apple side of
town, the 2011 release of MacOS 10.7 Lion saw the same for Mac users.
Many modern Linux distributions, too, work beautifully with the new
protocol.
How soon the new protocol becomes omnipresent is down to
providers of online services. So far, some big players, including Google,
AT&T, and Facebook, have been involved in promoting the joys of IPv6 to
the masses. Thousands of major ISPs and web-based companies vowed
to enable IPv6 support permanently on the World IPv6 Launch Event,
organized by the Internet Society, in June of 2012.
Now, a much larger pool of IP addresses aside, IPv6 offers some other
great benefits over IPv4, too.

• IP Security (IPsec). This is an important feature and

built right into the IPv6 protocol. Although available for

116
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

IPv4, data sent using IPsec with this older protocol was
sometimes blocked by firewalls, due to malware being
capable of piggybacking on these data packets. Not so
much with IPv6 IPsec.
• Speed. Due to IPv6 not needing any network address
translation (NAT), data communications over IPv6 tend
to be less congested. As a result, your Internet traffic
may feel slightly snappier, at least when using a fully
IPv6-compliant Internet service provider (ISP).

• Facilitating Internet of Things (IoT). With IPv4,

getting IoT devices (e.g., smartphones and wearable
gadgets) communicating with each other is sometimes
a chore. This is usually attributable to the use of
NAT. With IPv6, addressing devices in the IoT realm
becomes a more secure and streamlined process.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

There’s a pretty safe way to transmit data even in the virtual wild west
of the Internet: this is known as a virtual private network (VPN).
A connection secured with this approach is called a tunnel. In an ideal
situation, no outside actor, be they scammers or governments, can snoop
in on VPN traffic. Secure virtual private networks use various varieties of
tunneling protocols for their encryption. Basically, the transmitted data
is repackaged, thus being secured even when sent over public networks.
Popular tunneling protocols include the aging, but fast Point-to-Point
Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and OpenVPN, a modern and robust protocol
available for all popular operating systems. The latter is also capable of
passing through most firewalls which are sometimes configured to block

117
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

VPN access. OpenVPN is open source with a free Community Edition and
a paid Access Server version which provides additional features.
In theory VPNs are never a bad idea. There are some issues, however,
when it comes to states with less than amazing human rights records
spying on their VPN-powered citizens. Many paid providers of these
services maintain more or less thorough logs of their users’ activities.
A government opposed to specific opinions might demand access to
these logs disposing of the element of anonymity from the proceedings
altogether.
On the whole the benefits of implementing a VPN into your online life
outweigh the drawbacks. Even casual browsers benefit from the added
security it provides when using public Wi-Fi connections around cafés
and other establishments; such unsecured traffic can be eavesdropped
on rather trivially. Casual browsers aside, this is also important for both
political activists and businesspeople having their morning latte with
Wi-Fi. For a less critical purpose, VPNs can be harnessed to sidestep geo-­
blocking in which a service, such as Netflix, limits geographic regions a
user is trying to connect from.

A kill switch in the context of virtual private networks refers to an

automated process of shutting down a secure tunnel if the system
detects a breach or simply malfunctions.

There are numerous VPNs in different configurations available for

current-day platforms; see Table 6-3 for a rundown on some of the most
popular ones. Usually, more servers at a VPN’s disposal translates to
better security and/or faster operations overall. Also, what is relevant is
the geographic distribution of these servers; a hundred servers in two
countries is often less secure than fifty spread all over the world. As you
can observe, some VPNs are more rich in features than others.

118
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Table 6-3. Some popular providers of virtual private networks as of

Q2 2020. The pricing presented is an approximation subject to some
fluctuation
Product Cost Features

Nord VPN From 3.50 USD per month A promise of a “strict no logging policy,”
for a three-year plan kill switch, secures up to six devices,
over 5500 servers
Mullvad VPN 5 USD per month Easy setup, open source, over 500
servers
Express VPN 7.50 USD per month for a Over 3000 servers in 94 countries, 24/7
12-month plan tech support, immune to Google and
YouTube, etc. geo-blocking
Hotspot Shield 3 USD per month for a Over 3200 servers, 24/7 tech support
three-year plan

Setting Up a VPN for Windows

Many VPN providers offer their own custom software for setting up a
secure network, but that might result in waste of precious disk space and
you having less control over your connections. However, you can manually
set your VPN up to avoid these issues. Let’s start with Windows 10 as our
operating system.

• Access Settings. Navigate to Network & Internet.

• Select “VPN”. Click Add a VPN connection. This will

take you to a settings screen.
• Choose “VPN Provider”. Select the option Windows
(built-in).

119
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• Fill in the Connection name. You should give your VPN

connection a title which makes sense, as in it reflects the
name of the actual VPN provider (e.g., Nord VPN).

• Fill in the Server name or address. These details

will be issued by your VPN service. Generally, this is
presented in the form of a URL, for example, apress-is.
thebest.com.

• Select a VPN protocol. Out of the several protocols

available, pick the one supported by your VPN provider
(e.g., PPTP).

• Navigate to the drop-down menu labeled Type of sign-­

in info. In most cases you’ll be entering your username
and password, as issued by your VPN provider, into the
associated fields.

• Click Save. Go back to Network & Internet settings.

Choose your new VPN connection and click Connect.
You should now be able to go online using a secure
virtual private network.

VPN in MacOS
As is the case with Windows, you may want to use manual VPN
configuration for your Apple computer(s). For modern versions of MacOS,
the process is as follows:

• Navigate to System Preferences. You can do this by

clicking the Apple logo found on the top-left part of the
screen.

• Select Network. A new window will appear. Click the

plus sign (+) on the bottom-left part of this window.

120
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• Choose “VPN” from the list of options. Also select the

type of VPN your provider has issued you with.

• Click Create. Enter a meaningful and/or memorable

service name.
• Fill in the Server Address. This can be in the form of a
URL or an IP address.

• Enter your account name. Your account name is

provided by the vendor of the VPN.

• Click Authentication Settings. Enter the type of

encryption method which your VPN provider supports.

• Select User Authentication. Usually you will need

to choose the option of Password. Follow this up by
selecting the type of Machine Authentication your VPN
provider offers. In many cases it’ll be Shared Secret.
Click Ok.

• Click Advanced. Tick the checkbox on Send all traffic

over VPN connection in Options.

• Click Ok, Apply, and Connect.

121
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

VPN in Ubuntu Linux

For Linux, few VPN providers seem to offer custom software bundles with
graphical user interfaces. One of the most robust VPN clients/protocols
for Linux comes in the form of OpenVPN, as mentioned previously in the
chapter. We will next go through the steps for installing an Ubuntu-based
VPN using this solution. These steps will be similar for most modern
distributions of Linux.

• Make an account with the VPN provider of your

choosing. They should provide configuration files
for Linux on their website (with the file extension
of .ovpn); for example, Nord VPN offers theirs at
https://nordvpn.com/ovpn.

• Download and install Ubuntu OpenVPN packages.

Open a Terminal window and type in the following:
sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn-gnome.

• Click the NetworkManager icon in Ubuntu. Navigate

to VPN Off ➤ VPN Settings ➤ VPN. Click the plus (+)
button next to VPN.

• Select OpenVPN in the dialog window for Add VPN. If

this option is not visible, restart your computer and try
again.

• Click Import from file. Navigate to the folder where

you downloaded the .ovpn-files into. Double-click
these files.

• A window title Add a VPN will appear prepopulated

with server information. Enter your username and
password into the appropriate fields.

• Navigate back to NetworkManager. Select the VPN

server you wish to connect to.

122
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Safe Emailing with OpenPGP

A secure cryptographic system needs secure communications with
the outside world. Touted as “the most widely used email encryption
standard,” implementations of OpenPGP do have a good track record
of securing communications in the digital era. OpenPGP is maintained
by the OpenPGP Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF), an open standards organization founded in 1986. OpenPGP itself
was standardized in 1997. Originally, the IETF was supported by the US
federal government. Since 1993 the organization has developed standards
under the aegis of the Internet Society, which in turn is a global nonprofit
organization.
Several implementations of this public-key solution are available
for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. The current OpenPGP
specification (i.e., RFC 4880) names numerous robust algorithms such as
ElGamal, RSA, and AES in several varieties of strength.
OpenPGP technology integrates with mail clients such as Microsoft
Outlook, Apple Mail, or Mozilla’s Thunderbird. It can also be used in
tandem with several popular browsers such as Firefox or Chrome through
add-ons. Table 6-4 lists some easy-to-use OpenPGP implementations
which add another layer of security for smaller businesses.

123
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Table 6-4. Some varieties of OpenPGP implementations as of Q2 2020

Product Platform(s) Cost URL

Canary Mail MacOS & iOS MacOS 20 USD, www.canarymail.io

iOS 10 USD
Flowcrypt for Extension for Firefox None for limited flowcrypt.com
Gmail & Chrome, app for version, 5 USD
Android a month for
advanced version
GPG Suite MacOS Free (25 USD for gpgtools.org
extended support
plan for GPG
Mail)
GPG4Win Windows Free www.gpg4win.de
Enigmail MacOS, Windows, Free enigmail.net
for Mozilla Linux
Thunderbird
Pretty Easy Windows Outlook 20 USD for www.pep.security.com
Privacy extension, Android Outlook (5
devices per
license), 3 USD
for Android

Draft Begone! Securing Windows

In this section, we will review how to build the most secure Windows-­
based system from the ground up. We’ll be focusing on the latest iteration
of the operating system, Windows 10, since support for version 7 was
phased out in January 2020 and its follow-up Windows 8.1 will be joining it
soon enough.

124
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Windows-Security Musts
Encryption aside, you should stick to certain policies when it comes to looking
after the security of your devices running the Windows operating system. Let’s
review these first before proceeding into more cryptographic territory.

• Download and install every critical/security

update offered by Windows Update. You can access
the Windows Update in Settings under Update and
Security. Windows is usually more than happy to have
you restart your computer after an update to fully
install it. Do so, too, without hesitation.

• Make sure the Windows Defender Firewall is

enabled. This feature should be enabled out of the box
on Windows 10. To confirm this, navigate to Control
Panel ➤ System and Security ➤ Windows Defender
Firewall. Click Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or
off. Whenever this firewall is triggered by suspicious-­
sounding programs, it’s usually best to select Cancel in
the ensuing prompt.

• Keep your Microsoft Defender running and up to

date. This is a free anti-malware software package
shipped with every copy of Windows 10. Although its
ability to detect malicious software was modest at first,
since 2016 or so it has turned out to be a very useful
addition to your security stack providing robust real-­
time threat scanning. The software also integrates
with Microsoft browsers (i.e., Internet Explorer and
Microsoft Edge) and also provides automatic scans of
files downloaded with other non-Microsoft browsers.
Microsoft Defender was called Windows Defender prior
to a late 2019 update.

125
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

A Bit More on BitLocker

Backdoored or not, Microsoft’s BitLocker offers a decent level of
encryption for laypeople and smaller businesses with no qualms with the
government. Requiring the Pro or Enterprise editions of Windows 10,
initiating the encryption process is quite simple. As mentioned in
Chapter 3, navigating to Control Panel ➤ System and Security ➤ BitLocker
Drive Encryption, one simply clicks Turn on BitLocker to start the process
(see Figure 6-3).

Figure 6-3. The Windows 10 BitLocker setting

Please refer to Chapter 4 for a refresher on the basic

implementation of BitLocker.
Now, elaborating on more advanced features of BitLocker, we’ll get
more in depth with some additional security measures on offer such as
Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs). Like you may remember, these are
types of hardware-based cryptoprocessors which can greatly enhance the
security of your system. Often built-in into a computer’s motherboard,

126
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

these devices aren’t always switched on by default. Windows 10 manages

TPM chips on autopilot, making their manual configuration unnecessary
in some cases.

Most computers marketed as enterprise or business class have built-­

in TPM-devices out of the box. Cheaper PCs might contain a socket
for these devices, but you may have to purchase and install the chip
yourself. Some older consumer PCs in particular offer no support for
TPMs of any kind. Pay attention to the product specifications.

BIOS, UEFI, and TPM

Not even the latest version of Windows can evoke TPM if it’s disabled in a
computer’s Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). An older approach, a BIOS
was built into every PC motherboard and was the first thing executed when
you switched the power on. It governed many aspects of a computer’s
hardware and loaded an operating system, should one exist on connected
storage media. This approach often had a charming simplicity to it (see
Figure 6-4). BIOS-based computers are still very much around as of 2020.

Figure 6-4. A BIOS screen on a typical Windows PC of the late 1990s

127
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

In these older systems, you can usually enter BIOS settings by holding
down either the delete or F2 key. Navigate to the page mentioning TPM
and set it to “enabled”.
Now, the closer we got to 2010, the more PC’s came out equipped with
technology known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

Apple made a switch from an Open Firmware BIOS equivalent to an

implementation of EFI when swapping PowerPC processors in their
products to their Intel-manufactured counterparts. The process took
place between late 2005 and early 2006. As of 2020 all new Macs
still use Intel CPUs.

A replacement for BIOS, a UEFI served the same purpose but offered
more features, improved boot-up speed, and additional security features.
For one, a UEFI-equipped computer is immune against many of the threats
BIOS had as a feature called secure boot mitigates a lot of them. However, a
UEFI makes installation of other operating systems than what a computer
came shipped with a tad inconvenient. Still, if given a choice of either
an older, BIOS-equipped PC or one with UEFI, the latter is a far better
bet from a security standpoint. Again, you should make sure your UEFI-­
equipped computer has its TPM setting on “enabled” at all times; it may or
may not default to this setting out of the box.

TPM 1.2 vs. 2.0

There are two important revisions of TPM technology: versions 1.2 and
2.0. The former only supports the RSA algorithm with the SHA-1 hashing
technique. Many industry professionals are therefore steering clear from
TPM version 1.0 due to these limitations; it’s recommended you do too.
For one, version 2.0 has support for the mighty AES up to its most robust
256-bit variety. It also supports such hashing algorithms as SHA-384,

128
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

SHA-512, and even the most rugged varieties of the SHA-3 family. Using
TPM 2.0 simply makes sense. However, not all TPM-devices are built equal
and the algorithms they support may vary. Again, read the specs before
investing in a computer.

A Fresh Start: Resetting a TPM

Some scenarios exist which justify resetting a TPM-device (i.e., deleting
the passwords contained within one). The strongest case for this is when
one is reinstalling the operating system. On occasion Windows Defender
might prompt you to clear the TPM as well. Remember, Windows 10 will
automatically take control of the cleared TPM once reinstalled and fill it
with data that needs to be there. Before resetting a TPM-device, make sure
you have backups of your passwords and other related information; it can’t
be retrieved after a reset.
This process is quite simple for Windows 10. Navigate to Settings ➤
Update & Security ➤ Windows Security ➤ Device security. Click Security
Processor Details. Next, select Security Device Troubleshooting. Finally,
click Clear TPM. You’ll be asked to restart the computer. Do so, and
Windows will rebuild the data on your TPM on its next launch.

You might have the option of using non-Microsoft drivers for your
TPM. This might prove to be an issue at some point; it’s best to
stick with certified Windows-based drivers. Also, with Windows 10
it’s better to not utilize any TPM-clearing function found in the UEFI
interface. Rather, let the operating system take care of that.

129
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

A Nice, Ripe Stick of USB, Please

Like discussed in Chapter 4, BitLocker can be configured to utilize a
USB-stick in case a TPM isn’t available – and even when it is. This is a fine
additional countermeasure against malicious actors not in possession of
said stick and one that’s easy to implement. In BitLocker parlance, this
is known as the USB Key Mode, and as previously mentioned, it can be
combined with a password, a TPM, or both. While the option for relying
solely on a USB device is available, this is not a recommended approach.
Have you ever lost a memory-stick or two? That’s why. Again, whenever
feasible, secure your BitLocker equipped with every means available.

Utilizing a USB device in conjunction with BitLocker requires

a computer with a BIOS/UEFI which supports booting up from
USB. These days that is pretty much the norm. Your mileage with
older computers may vary significantly.

Minding Your MacOS

Moving on to the Apple ecosystem, you should be aware that all varieties
of MacOS since version 10.7 (Lion) come built-in with a great encryption
solution in the form of FileVault 2. As with other closed-source solution,
it may or may not come with corporate/government backdoors. As a Mac
user, your best bet is to at least enhance your system’s security by applying
a second layer of encryption in the form of file containers. For this, the
100% open source VeraCrypt is probably your best choice; like FileVault 2 it
supports all versions of MacOS since version 10.7. There are other choices
for your MacOS-related cryptographic solutions. We’ll go in depth with
these soon. But first, let’s review some basic security measures every Mac
user should be aware of at all times.

130
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

M
 acOS-Security Musts
Whether you are an individual or in charge of an organization, there are
certain policies related to security you should always implement. Needless
to say, these approaches should have the scope of every single computer
under your roof.

• Install updates without delay. When you get the

prompt to update, do it immediately. Updates aren’t
just a bunch of pretty new emoticons; an unpatched,
vulnerable system can be potentially compromised
in seconds. Also, restart your Mac to complete the
installation process without delay.

• Enable the MacOS application firewall. This feature is

usually not switched on by default. Navigate to System
Preferences ➤ Security & Privacy ➤ Firewall. Click the
lock in the bottom left of the window and enter your
system password. Proceed to click Enable Firewall. You
should also click Firewall Options and tick the box next
to Enable Stealth Mode to make your system slightly
harder to find for the numerous malicious actors out
there. This setting won’t make a world of a difference if
you are behind a firewalled router but it can’t hurt.

• Limit sharing. Your Mac is willing to communicate

with the outside world through numerous avenues.
From a security point of view, it’s a wise move to limit
these communications to a bare minimum. Visit System
Preferences ➤ Sharing and you’ll get to choose which
forms of data your computer gets to share (see Figure 6-­5).
Under many scenarios, you can simply untick all of
the boxes; of most critical scrutiny should be Remote
Management and Remote Login.

131
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Figure 6-5. The MacOS sharing settings screen

• Review your Gatekeeper settings. Since MacOS 10.7

(Lion), Apple has included a security feature called
Gatekeeper in its operating systems. This is a relatively
solid tool for blocking many varieties of malicious
software from executing on one’s system. Now, as of
MacOS 10.12 (Sierra), there are only two settings for
Gatekeeper: either allowing the execution of software
downloaded from the Apple App Store or both from
the App Store and (Apple) Identified Developers.
For maximum security it’s a good idea to only trust
software which originates from the App Store. If you’re
on a Mac with an older operating system (e.g., MacOS
10.11 “El Capitan” or earlier), you will also see a third
Gatekeeper option: allow apps downloaded from
anywhere. You should never enable this setting. To
review your Gatekeeper settings, navigate to System
Preferences ➤ Security & Privacy ➤ General.

132
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

• Create a nonadministrator account for trivial use.

Administrators are great and necessary people, but an
administrator’s account falling into the wrong hands
can be a disaster. Therefore, it makes sense to have a
secondary account without administrator privileges.
For this, you should navigate to Users & Groups in your
Mac’s System Preferences. Also, make sure to disable
automatic login from Login Options (see Figure 6-6).

Figure 6-6. The MacOS user settings screen. Note Login Options in
the bottom left

T2, Judgment Chip: TPM, Apple Style

With the release of the mighty 2017 iMac Pro, Apple has been including
a hybrid TPM/accelerator chip in many of their computers. The T2
chip is Apple’s second-generation custom microchip used for on-
the-fly encryption and several other purposes. Its functions include

133
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

dedicated audio management, webcam-related image processing, and

cryptographic functions for one’s solid-state drive(s). The T2 runs on a
discrete operating system known as BridgeOS with which the average
user rarely needs to tamper with. Having a T2 in your Mac not only
makes it more secure, but also slightly faster as quite a number of tasks
are offloaded from the CPU onto this chip. The only downside is it’s
pretty much impossible to recover data from a Mac with a failed T2 chip
as the system is quite impenetrable.
All T2-equipped Macs are issued a Mac Unique ID (UID) and a Device
Group ID (GID) during manufacturing. Both the UID and GID are tied to
a particular device only. These strings are inaccessible by any software
or hardware outside of their environment, which Apple calls the Secure
Enclave. The UID and GID are used by the cryptographic engine in a
T2 device. To the outside world, this engine shows only the results of its
encryption or decryption operations. Not even Apple or their suppliers can
later access the UID contents directly. This is the first layer of security in a
T2 chip.
Now, when FileVault is enabled in MacOS, your SSD-drives are quite
safe from prying eyes combined with Apple’s custom chip. The T2 chip’s
cryptographic functions operate under FileVault using the rock-solid
AES-­256 algorithm using the XTS operating mode as discussed in Chapter 4.
As the encryption/decryption process is also completely offloaded onto
Apple’s custom chip, there is no longer any additional speed penalty
to any of your solid-state disks. Even when FileVault is disabled on a
T2-equipped Mac, the SSDs in the system remain encrypted. However,
they are then only protected by the hardware UID. As all the drives are
subjected to encryption in every case, switching FileVault on later isn’t a
time-consuming process and is highly recommended for the extra layer of
security it provides.

134
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

As of Q2 2020, the following Apple computers come with the T2 chip

onboard:

• Desktops: iMac Pro (2017), Mac Mini (2018), Mac Pro

(2019), and presumably later models

• Laptops: MacBook Air (2018), MacBook Pro (2018), and

later models

Not sure if a particular Mac has the T2 chip or just feel like perusing
some information concerning one? Open About this Mac and click
System Report. Select the Hardware tab. If it has a subtab called
Controller also mentioning the chip, you’re in luck.

T2 Maintenance 101

As with traditional TPM modules, issues may turn up which might
require you to refresh your T2 chip settings. Apple has integrated its
System Management Controller (SMC) within the T2; therefore, if your
computer has sudden issues with its cooling fans, external ports, or power
management, a reset of the SMC might be in order. We’ll now review the
procedure for newer T2-equipped Macs.
For your Apple desktop, first shut your computer down. Disconnect its
power lead for 15 seconds. After this reconnect the power lead and wait for
five seconds. Finally, press the power button like you normally would to
start up your Mac.
As for T2-equipped Apple laptops, the process to reset the chip is a
tad more complex. First, shut down your MacBook. Then press and hold
the right Shift, left Option, and left Control keys for at least seven seconds.
Continue by holding those keys while you also press and hold the power
button for yet another seven seconds. Now, release the keys and the power
button, wait for a couple of seconds, and finally just power up the laptop.

135
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Security Software for Mac

We’ll now review some more security solutions for your MacOS-based
environments.

• AppCrypt by Cisdem (30/45 USD for a lifetime home/

business license)

A tool catered perfectly not just for worried parents

but also for the organizational clientele, AppCrypt
works to block specific websites. Bid farewell to your
employees wasting time on Facebook and Twitter
with this Mac-specific solution. In addition to
websites, you also get to prohibit the use of specific
applications you’re not particularly fond of, such
as games and other time-consumers, with the use
of a master password only you should be aware of.
AppCrypt makes it somewhat hard to circumvent its
blocking prowess by forcing said master password
on MacOS System Preferences, Terminal, Activity
Monitor, and Console.

AppCrypt has scheduling functionality, so you can

set the exact date and time to lift your app usage
bans. This feature won’t work for website blocking,
however. AppCrypt is available for MacOS versions
10.10 (Yosemite) or newer.

• Discover AppCrypt here and download a demo version:

www.cisdem.com/appcrypt-mac.html.

• Encrypto by MacPaw

Sometimes just a few of your files need that extra

layer of security. Encrypto is a nifty and free solution

136
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

for securing your individual files and folders on

the MacOS. Relying on the 256-bit variety of AES,
it offers without a doubt robust cryptographic
capabilities. Not only that, you can share your
encrypted files with Windows users, as Encrypto
is also available for Microsoft’s range of operating
systems starting from Windows XP. On a Mac the
software also allows for easy integration into your
OS with an additional Share button that’s there for
sending your files over to iMessages or AirDrop.
Support for decrypting .crypt-files in iOS devices is
lacking as of early 2020.

The program features a clean, user-friendly

graphical user interface so no typing into terminal
windows is needed to create a very secure file
container with a .crypto extension. By simply
dragging and dropping a file into the program
window and entering a password is all it takes.

With Encrypto you can also add handy password

hints into each file should you choose to; these may
be especially handy when sharing data. There is
the minor annoyance of a window requesting you
share “anonymous user data,” whatever that means,
every time you shut Encrypto down. However, this
shouldn’t dissuade you from trying out this fine
piece of cryptographic software.

• Download Encrypto here: https://macpaw.com/

encrypto.

137
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Staying Safer in Linux

Now it’s time to take a deeper look into the Linux side of things. Although
we took a glance at a few cryptographic solutions for this great operating
system in Chapter 3, it’s time to review a couple more popular pieces of
security software for this fine operating system.

C
 ryFS
Offering pretty much a complete cryptographic solution, CryFS is a
wonderful piece of open source software for most distributions of Linux.
Not only does it protect local data on your computer, but it can also be
harnessed for cloud-based services, such as DropBox. CryFS makes sure
only encrypted data leaves your system. This encompasses not only your
files and directories, but metadata (including file size information) as well.
The encryption approach in CryFS actually consists of a double-layer
process. First, it uses the most robust algorithm we currently have, the
AES-256, for an external layer. After this the user can choose to implement
a different encryption scheme for an inner layer. Both of these layers share
the password given by the user. A truly unique solution, CryFS is highly
recommended for more advanced cryptographers looking for the current
state of the art in Linux security.
Let’s now go through the basic steps of getting CryFS running on your
Linux distribution, shall we?

1. Installation of CryFS for Ubuntu and Debian is

simple. Just enter the following into a terminal
window: $ sudo apt install cryfs

2. Next we create two new directories with CryFS.

Type in the following: $ cryfs realdir virtdir. You can
naturally choose whatever names you want for both
of these. The latter (i.e., virtdir in our example) is

138
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

the name for a virtual, encrypted directory which is

managed in the background by the CryFS system. The
program will ask for specific settings when making
these directories; it’s okay to go with the defaults.
3. You can now operate with this CryFS virtual
directory to store, modify, and delete any data
you wish in a very secure environment. Simply
use the cd command to enter the encrypted portion
by typing $ cd virtdir. The actual data will be stored
and encrypted by CryFS in the first directory we
specified (i.e., realdir) at all times.

4. Unmounting an encrypted CryFS partition is

simple. Just enter $ cryfs-unmount virtdir (or
whichever name you chose for the virtual directory).

• Discover CryFS here: www.cryfs.org.

CryFS is also available for Windows. However, this version is only

supported to an experimental degree. See the project website for
installation instructions and proceed with caution; it’s best to use
other Windows-based cryptographic solutions as of Q2 2020.

F ireStarter
Nearly all Linux distributions come with iptables, a piece of software which
functions as a firewall. Being a command-line utility, it can be hard to
grasp by beginners and can actually cause major issues with security and
connectivity if poorly configured. Luckily graphical user interfaces for this
vital part of Linux security do exist. One of the more established ones is
FireStarter, a free and intuitive firewall interface which works great for the
less experienced users.

139
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Although the latest stable release of FireStarter dates back to 2005,

it’s still a solid addition to your Linux experience. Setting the program up
is easy by running a three-step wizard. You get some great functionality
with FireStarter, such as detailed logs and easy rule-making for all of your
online traffic-control needs.

• Download FireStarter here: http://sourceforge.net/

projects/firestarter.

You vs. Malware

As discussed previously, nothing can cripple even the most well-encrypted
system faster than a dose of potent malware. We’ll now delve into this
issue in detail, presenting some of the best solutions against even the most
ingenious varieties of malicious software in Windows-, MacOS-, or Linux-­
based environments.
Contrary to a somewhat popular belief, there are in fact a plethora of
well-established free anti-malware software suites for your immediate
download. We’ll now go more in depth with some of these solutions.
However, corporations and smaller organizations love their commercial
anti-malware licenses. And this is for a reason; these usually provide better
support, features, and in some cases, less strain on one’s hardware. We’ll
also explore the world of paid security software, focusing only on solutions
with the best features and minimal hits on performance.

Avast Antivirus by Avast

One of the most popular anti-malware solutions on the market, Avast
products are available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and
iOS. Their free antivirus tool provides solid protection against malware of
all types as well as scanning for threats on Wi-Fi. The only downside in the
suite is the inclusion of a touch of advertisement.

140
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

While individuals can gain much peace of mind from Avast’s free tools,
the company offers even more value to corporations and organizations.
For one, Avast Business Antivirus Pro offers great additional features such
as secure file shredding and real-time data protection for teams working in
Microsoft’s SharePoint environment (see Table 6-5).

Table 6-5. The available varieties of Avast solutions for businesses in

Q2 2020. The pricing presented is an approximation subject to some
fluctuation
License Cost Per Annum Main Selling Points
Per Computer

Antivirus 30 USD Automatic signature updates, Avast

Firewall, CyberCapture file analysis of
suspicious programs
Antivirus Pro 40 USD Secure file shredder, Microsoft SharePoint
and Exchange (email) security
Antivirus Pro Plus 50 USD Webcam protection, additional password
security

The Avast story is not without controversy. In January 2020 it

was revealed that the company may have sold thousands of its users’
profiles for commercial gain. Avast made a statement claiming the
data was not enough to identify any users and apparently dropped the
practice entirely.
• Download Avast Antivirus for free: www.avast.com.

141
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Avira Antivirus by Avira Operations GmbH & Co

With its roots in 1986 Germany, Avira is a long-standing antiviral product
of a very high caliber. Some coming in both free and paid versions, Avira
offerings are a sturdy, well-received line of products available for multiple
platforms. Unfortunately, support for Linux was dropped in 2013.
Avira claims their anti-malware software is among the most lightweight
(i.e., easiest on a device’s hardware). In addition, their offerings have
received numerous awards in several categories over the years. The
company also insists that they are unwilling to sell your information to
any third parties. To their credit Germany does have a good recent track
record of protecting the privacy of its citizens and the users of information
systems in general. This is in part due to historical reasons.

A zero-day vulnerability is a flaw in any piece of software which may

or may not be known to its creators but remains unfixed for the time
being. Usually, this is due to time constraints and will be addressed
more or less swiftly in the form of an update. However, malicious
actors can cause a lot of damage to the users of software with these
types of vulnerabilities.

Avira Free Antivirus is a popular anti-malware solution for Windows,

MacOS, Android, and iOS. Its commercial counterpart especially, the Avira
Antivirus Pro, remains a constant favorite among reviewers and users
alike. Avira offers many excellent solutions suited for both individuals and
organizations (see Table 6-6).

142
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Table 6-6. The available main varieties of Avira products in Q2 2020.

The pricing presented is an approximation subject to some fluctuation
Solution Cost Per Main Selling Points
Annum

Free Antivirus n/a Robust protection against most types of

malware and malicious websites
Antivirus Pro 40 USD Customer support, email attachment, and USB-­
device scanning, ad-free
Free Security Suite n/a Includes free antivirus, system speedup, VPN
(500 MB/month), Software Updater, and seven
other programs
Internet Security 50 USD Automatic software updates, advanced
Suite ransomware protection, customer support
Avira Prime 115 USD Computer speed optimization components,
support for up to five devices, premium apps for
iOS and Android
Antivirus Pro 30 USD Avira Protection Cloud, AI-based zero-day
Business Edition vulnerability –protection, ransomware protection
Antivirus for 120 USD File server protection, content filtering policies
Endpoint
Antivirus for Small 180 USD Additional email security, email receiver
Business protection, Microsoft Exchange security

• Download Avira Antivirus for free: www.avira.com.

143
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

B
 itdefender Antivirus
In charge of a vast variety of high-quality products for a multitude of
systems, Bitdefender is a company with great credentials in computer
security solutions. Free products notwithstanding (including their
Virus Scanner for Mac found on Apple App Store), Bitdefender has to
offer some powerful paid suites for most of your online security needs
(see Table 6-7).

Table 6-7. The main varieties of Bitdefender products in Q2 2020.

The pricing presented is an approximation subject to some fluctuation
Product Cost (Per First Platform Main Selling Points
Year)

Antivirus Plus 30 USD for 3 Windows Multilayer ransomware

2020 computers protection
Internet 40 USD for 3 Windows Parental controls
Security 2020 computers
Total Security 45 USD for 5 Windows, MacOS, Support for three additional
2020 computers iOS, Android platforms, operating
system-­optimization tools

• Explore Bitdefender’s range of products here:

www.bitdefender.com.

144
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

 pyBot – Search and Destroy by

S
Safer-­Networking Ltd
Bursting to the scene all the way back in 1999, SpyBot is a popular and
effective countermeasure against malicious software of most varieties for
Microsoft Windows operating systems. In addition to its anti-malware
tools, the software offers fine anti-rootkit capabilities. The latter come
in two varieties, namely, “quick scan” and “deep scan.” Like its name
states, the former is a fast but somewhat limited type of system analysis.
The latter, while more robust, can take anything between half an hour to
several hours per your average computer as SpyBot scours hard drives
and Windows registries rather vigorously. Unfortunately, the program
can occasionally prompt you with more false alarms (i.e., harmless
software is appearing as something malicious) than other anti-malware
software.
Other functionality offered by SpyBot includes “immunization,” a type
of preemptive measure against specific vulnerabilities found in Windows
and in some of its most popular Internet browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer,
Firefox, and Opera). This feature simply blocks your system’s access to
known malicious websites. Immunizing Windows with SpyBot usually
takes only a few seconds and is highly recommended.
SpyBot does take a chunk of a system’s resources (i.e., memory) but
is free to download and offers much even in this free version. However,
real-time protection is only available via a paid license (see Table 6-8). But
even if you’re feeling stingy and go for the free version, this software will
probably become quite dear to you and your Windows-based systems.

145
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

Table 6-8. The available varieties of SpyBot – Search and Destroy in

Q2 2020. The pricing presented is an approximation subject to some
fluctuation
License Cost Per Annum Main Selling Points

Free n/a Anti-spyware, system immunization, rootkit scan

Home 15 USD Automatic signature updates
Professional 25 USD Secure file shredder, system registry repair,
command-line tools
Corporate 35 USD per device Customized feature set according to the needs
of the business
Technician 55 USD FileAlyzer file analysis including hex data
viewing and editing capabilities

• Download SpyBot – Search and Destroy for free:

www.safer-networking.org/products.

T DSS Killer and Virus Removal Tool 2015 by

Kaspersky Lab
Founded in 1997 in Moscow, Kaspersky Lab is a well-respected actor in
the business of anti-malware software solutions. Just to be on the safe side,
the US Department of Homeland Security banned the use of Kaspersky
products in all US government departments as of 2017. This move is likely
to have been an overreaction as Kaspersky products consistently score very
well in many independent security experts’ tests.
Not only limited to ta single variety of rootkits, the TDSSKiller tool
can detect and quarantine other types of malicious software including
ZeroAccess, Whistler, and RLoader. As of Q2 2020, the software is

146
 Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

supported, updated, and highly recommended. Kaspersky also offers a

free general-purpose malware scanner. Unlike its name might state, Virus
Removal Tool 2015 still gets fairly frequent updates as of 2020. Both of
these tools are only available for Windows-based systems.
• Download TDSS Killer for free: https://usa.
kaspersky.com/downloads/tdsskiller.

• Download Virus Removal Tool 2015 for free:

https://support.kaspersky.com/8527.

TDSS, also known as Alurion, was the second most active rootkit in
the world in 2010. The program did/does its best to disable all
anti-­malware solutions on a system and gather sensitive data such
as credit card numbers and online credentials.

Stinger by McAfee
A fine addition to your anti-malware arsenal coming in at exactly zero
dollars, Stinger offers real-time protection in addition to its frequently
updated signatures. The program is available for users of both 32- and
64-­bit Windows operating systems and does not need any kind of license
from McAfee to download or execute. Again, the main lure in Stinger is in
the real-time protection. McAfee does state this portion of the software
is still in beta testing as of 2020 Q2, but it seems to do its job rather well
already. While you shouldn’t rely on Stinger alone for your anti-malware
needs, it’s still a good addition to have in your arsenal.

• Download Stinger for free: www.mcafee.com/

enterprise/en-us/downloads/free-tools/
stinger.html.

147
Chapter 6 Creating Extremely Secure Encrypted Systems

I n Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• What BIOS and UEFI refer to and how they differ

• The best practices for securing a modern operating
system

• How to implement proper router security policies,

including Wi-Fi security

• How virtual private networks (VPNs) benefit you and

your organization

• Which anti-malware software suites are out there for

Windows, Linux, and MacOS in 2020

In the next chapter we’ll be taking a breather from the technical side
of things and explore the many fascinating legal aspects surrounding
cryptography. For one, did you know being in possession of any type of
encrypted material in select countries may in itself constitute a crime?
Read all about it in Chapter 7!

R
 eferences
Internet Society (2020): Measurement activities of IPv6 deployment.
Retrieved from: www.worldipv6launch.org/measurements

148
CHAPTER 7

Prohibitions and
Legal Issues
As exciting as cryptography can be, dabbling in it may also come with a
few rather unpleasant unforeseen legal ramifications – when dealing with
certain jurisdictions, that is. We’ll now take a gander at digital encryption
technology from the sometimes overlooked legal point of view. Starting
from the vast landmass called America, we’ll have covered most the
world’s cryptographic restrictions by the end of this chapter. Also, the
related matter of various categories of US privacy legislation are explored.
Cryptography is a hot topic; it’s a magnificent tool for both congenial
and malicious actors in the world. As you deepen your knowledge on the
subject, you’re bound to run into some landmark court cases – and the
associated legal terms. Should you need to brush up on your legalese, a
primer is to be found at the end of this chapter, for your convenience.

Note This chapter is not intended to provide legal advice. Please

consult an attorney if you need clarification on any variety of legal
information.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 149

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_7
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Missiles, Tanks, and Encryption

Now, until 1992, the export of cryptographic technologies out of the
United States was strictly controlled. This type of technology was, after all,
considered “auxiliary military equipment” by the Federal Government
back in the day. Over the years these restrictions have gradually been
relaxed, the main reasons being the Internet, the massive growth of digital
commerce – and the first amendment.
Not surprisingly, the legality of digital cryptography was tested in the
courts by a couple of landmark cases. Perhaps the most relevant case in
the matter, Bernstein v. United States took place in 1995, when computers
were mostly light gray boxes and the very first Toy Story wowed us all.
Daniel J. Berkley was a strapping young doctoral student at the University
of California, Berkeley, with a keen interest in cryptography. He devised
his own software-based encryption system, Snuffle, and quickly found
himself at odds with the Federal Government. Remember, source code of
encryption software was still military equipment at the time, listed on the
US Munitions List alongside ballistic missiles and tanks. Bernstein was
aware of this and contacted the State Department. He was told to either
register as an arms dealer or forget about it.
With the help of Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital
rights group, Bernstein appealed on constitutional grounds, and won.
President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 13026 in 1996, which
transferred commercial encryption technology from the US Munitions List
to the Commerce Control List. And so began a new era of loosening US
export regulations on cryptographic systems.

150
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

E U’s General Data Protection

Regulation (GDPR)
Enforced since May of 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation
changed the way businesses handle their customers’ data. The GDPR was
created to offer EU citizens greater control over their information whether
they are sharing it within or outside of the EU. Businesses not happy to
comply with these new regulations face fines up to 20 million EUR.
The GDPR grants eight rights for digital customers.

1. The right to access. Individuals have the right to

request access to their personal data and to ask how
their data is used by a company.

2. The right to be forgotten. Whenever consumers

stop being customers or if they withdraw their
consent, they have the right to have their data
deleted.

3. The right to data portability. Individuals have a

right to transfer their data from one service provider
to another.

4. The right to be informed. Consumers have to opt

in for their data to be gathered and consent must be
freely given rather than implied.

5. The right to have information corrected.

Individuals can have their data updated if it is out of
date or incorrect.

6. The right to restrict processing. Individuals can

request that their data is not used for processing.

151
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

7. The right to object. This includes the right of

individuals to stop the processing of their data for
marketing purposes. There are no exemptions to
this rule.
8. The right to be notified. In case of a data breach,
an individual has a right to be informed about this
within 72 hours.

The regulation applies to all businesses and organizations established

in the EU whether their data is processed inside or outside of this region.
A business offering goods and services to EU citizens is also subject to
the GDPR. From a consumer’s viewpoint, the regulation is certainly very
visible as those cookie-related confirmation dialogs on almost every
commercial website.
Businesses have criticized the GDPR for its stiff penalties for failure to
comply and a strict time frame for implementing these policies.

Cryptography in the United States

Although the United States is quite at ease with encryption in the current
year, some restrictions naturally apply. These include exporting this
type of technology to the so-called rogue states (sometimes referred to
as “states of concern” instead) which in 2019 include Sudan, Venezuela,
North Korea, and Iran. Several nations, including Libya, Yugoslavia, and
Cuba, have been scrubbed off this list over the years as the political climate
changes. The situation is subject to change.
Custom cryptographic software, cryptographic consulting services,
and militarized encryption equipment all require an export license.
Encryption tools specifically designed, developed, or adapted for military
use remain on the tightly controlled US Munitions List.

152
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Encrypted and Crossing the Border

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution was created to protect
against unreasonable searches and seizures. This doesn’t apply to the US
border or her airports, however. In United States v. Arnold (2008), the US
Ninth Court of Appeals ruled that data on a traveler’s electronic materials,
including personal files on a laptop computer, may be perused entirely
at random. This has caused concern among supporters of the Fourth
Amendment as well as professionals who deal with mission-critical data,
such as lawyers and scientists.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents do not require
“reasonable suspicion,” a legal standard of proof in the United States,
to stop and search travelers. He or she may be coerced into revealing
passwords by being subjected to lengthy periods of detainment. In
addition, CBP and other authorities may confiscate your devices and ship
them out for “technical assistance”; there is technology out there in seedy
government laboratories which might be able to crack your passwords,
no matter how strong. You may or may not see your devices again in this
scenario.
The best way of passing through the US border smoothly is to prepare
to hand over your key codes. It’s therefore best to travel with as little
personal or encrypted data as possible. Log out of all cloud services on all
of your devices before crossing the border. Either delete your critical data
beforehand or, even better, bring blank devices with you with only the
minimum of apps needed for your stay. Keep those volatile trade secrets
and patent ideas at the office. Any embarrassing mankini and/or swimsuit
shots belong at home.

153
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Key Disclosure Laws in the United States

The so-called key disclosure laws refer to legislation which compels an
individual to hand over passwords of their digital storage devices to law
enforcement. These laws are used to gather evidence to be used in a court
of law or for the purposes of national security; they vary greatly between
countries.
The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution protects an individual
from self-incrimination. There are no de facto key disclosure laws active in
the United States. Some interesting case law on the subject exists, however.
John Doe, a Floridian under investigation in 2012, refused to reveal the
passwords to his encrypted devices and was jailed for contempt of court.
In United States v. Doe, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that
handing out the password for encrypted data or revealing the decrypted
data itself is an act of self-incrimination, so an individual can’t be forced to
do so by the government.
In United States v. Kirschner in 2010, the US District Court for the
Eastern District of Michigan held that coercing an individual into revealing
a password, even as a response to a grand jury subpoena, constitutes a
violation of the Fifth Amendment. Plead the fifth, people.

 ey Disclosure Laws in Canada, Europe,

K
and Oceania
Many countries do not share America’s mostly reasonable take on key
disclosure, although in the Czech Republic, Poland, Iceland, Germany,
Sweden, and Switzerland no key disclosure laws are in effect as of 2019.
However, de facto punishments for failing to disclose keys, such as
detainment and isolation, might apply.

154
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

In the Bahamas, law enforcement officers presenting a warrant are

entitled to require any person in possession of decryption information
(i.e., passwords) to grant access to such decryption information “as it
necessary to decrypt data.” The penalty for not complying consists of up to
a three-year jail sentence and/or a fine of up to 10,000 Bahamian dollars,
which is roughly the same amount in US dollars.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is applied to every
individual, citizen or not, inside the Canadian border, as established in
1985 by the Supreme Court of Canada. The charter protects all people
against self-incrimination, including in cases where encrypted devices
are a part of an investigation. A decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in
2010, R. c. Boudreau-Fontaine, fortified Canada’s position on the matter;
nobody inside Canada can be punished for not divulging the keys to their
devices. However, some dissenting voices have emerged over the years.
In 2016, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) proposed
new powers that would require suspects to hand over their encryption
keys when under criminal investigation. Still, as of 2019 Canada remains
faithful to their charter.
In the United Kingdom, a person is required to decrypt data and/or
supply passwords to the government without a court order. Failure to do
so carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail or five years in the cases
of national security or child indecency. Legislation for this practice was
introduced in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which
came into effect in 2007. Several convictions have been made under this
law in recent years.
In Ireland, the police (i.e., the Garda) have the right to demand
passwords to encrypted systems in cases of criminal investigation.
However, it only applies to a “person at the place which is being searched”
or where a person has certain material in their “possession or control.”

155
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

In the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Belgium, systems

administrators and other related personnel are compelled to provide
passwords to encrypted systems, should they be in possession of this
information. Failure to do say results in fines and in some cases jail. The
suspects themselves are not required by law to divulge any keys in any of
the above countries.
The Council of Europe has influenced the key disclosure debate in
Sweden by adopting a convention of forced disclosure. Although no such
laws exist yet in 2019 in Sweden, it’s quite likely they will be introduced
into the country’s legislation in the near future.
In Australia the police will, with a magistrate’s order, use their wide-­
ranging power to require “a specified person to provide any information or
assistance that is reasonable and necessary to allow the officer to” access
computer data that is “evidential material.” In practice this means the
police have the right to decrypt your devices. Failure to do so might result
in a six-month jail sentence.
Although New Zealand doesn’t have key disclosure laws per se, the
charter may be a tad obscure on the matter. The Search and Surveillance
Act of 2012 states both “The search power cannot be used to require
the specified person give any information tending to incriminate them”
and “this does not prevent a person exercising a search power from
requiring the specified person to provide information.” Should a person
decline offering his or her decryption keys, there’s potentially a three-
month jail sentence to look forward to. Also, there has been a push by
some elements of New Zealand’s government to issue limitless powers to
access encrypted devices of citizens, but this policy hasn’t manifested so
far, as of 2019.

156
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Key Disclosure Laws in Africa

Aside from North Africa, most nations on the continent do not have
specific laws for the regulation of encryption. Some exceptions, however,
are to be found. In Nigeria, law enforcement is allowed to “use any
technology to decode or decrypt any coded or encrypted data contained
in a computer into readable text or comprehensible format,” as long as
a warrant is in effect. Willfully obstructing any law enforcement officer
or failing to comply with any lawful inquiry or requests made by any law
enforcement agency is a criminal offense. This could be interpreted as
including a request to assist in data decryption. Refusing to cooperate is
punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, and/or a fine of up to
500,000 NGN which is roughly 1400 USD.
Mozambique’s Code of Criminal Procedure simply states that
encrypted documents must be subject to review by experts in order to
decrypt them. This may or may not include a cryptography enthusiast
spilling the beans in the form of his or her passwords.
In Angola, the Law on Combating Crime in the Field of Information and
Communication Technologies and Information Society Services provides
that if it becomes necessary for the production of evidence to obtain
specific data stored in a particular information system, the “Competent
Authority” may order those who have control of such data to provide that
data or access to the information system where it is stored under penalty of
punishment for qualified disobedience. These orders cannot be directed
toward a suspect or a defendant in the proceedings.

157
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

World’s Toughest Key Disclosure Laws

A few countries are extremely strict when it comes to key disclosure. The
judges of France sentence you to jail for three years if you fail to give out
your passwords during an investigation. In addition, you’re required to pay
a fine of 45,000 euros (or roughly 51,000 USD as of 2019). If the suspect’s
compliance would’ve prevented a crime, jail time increases to five years
and the fine goes up to 75,000 euros (or 85,000 USD).
In India, the central or state governments may order any agency to
compel any “subscriber or intermediary or any person in charge of the
computer resource” to “extend all facilities and technical assistance”
necessary to decrypt information. The penalty for noncompliance is up to
seven years of jail and/or a fine.
In South Africa, failure to hand over your password might result in
a whopping ten-year jail sentence or a fine of up to two million South
African rand, a hefty sum of roughly $145,000. However, a judge must first
issue a “decryption direction,” a type of warrant, to the person believed to
be in possession of the key.
Zimbabwe’s Interception of Communications Act allows law
enforcement agencies to impose “disclosure requirements” to persons
in respect of encrypted information where they believe that a key to
encrypted information is in the possession of that person, and that a
disclosure requirement is necessary for “the interests of national security,
to prevent or detect a serious criminal offense, or in the interests of
the country’s economic wellbeing.” They must also believe that the
requirement is proportionate to what is being sought. Noncompliance with
the disclosure agreement may result in a jail sentence of up to five years,
and/or a fine.

158
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Criticism and Blowback

Key disclosure laws have been met with much criticism by numerous
pertinent privacy organizations worldwide. Self-incrimination issues
aside, the application process of these laws may overlook scenarios where
the key has genuinely been lost, forgotten, or subjected to expiration.
Various technological solutions have been used to circumvent
key disclosure entirely. These include deniable encryption, where a
collection of data contains several encrypted portions with separate
keys, and steganography, where the critical data is hidden in plain sight
inside noncritical data. Of course, severe violations to the well-being of
a person, such as physical torture, could work to undermine even the
aforementioned practices.
A rather ineffective solution, key escrowing, has been offered by some
government agencies, including the US Department of Commerce. An
escrow is a system where a third party maintains custody of an item,
taking action with it only when a specified condition has been fulfilled
between the other two parties involved. A key escrow would be a database
containing potentially tens of millions of passwords, or more, handed
over to a third party. Governments could only access the database in the
case of serious crime investigations. This arrangement would be far from
ideal. Issues, such as government employees’ ability to abuse access to
this database, persist. Naturally, these keys would also be subject to a great
deal of hacking attempts from cybercriminals, endangering countless
individuals and businesses in the process. More repressive nations could
use a key escrow to their own nefarious spying purposes, making life for
political dissidents rather challenging.
A key escrow is eventually only really effective for law enforcement in
general as a global structure. Should just a handful of nations implement
it, many others will follow. It’s best we keep this genie in the bottle. As of
2019, only Tunisia seems to have a nationwide key escrow system in place.

159
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

The Wassenaar Arrangement

Since cryptography can be used for both benign and nefarious purposes,
most governments in the early 1990s began to feel nervous about the
impact the rising popularity of computing had on it. In 1995 in Wassenaar,
the Netherlands, it was agreed among participating nations that a personal
use exemption was needed for international travelers carrying encrypted
devices. This exemption allows a traveler to enter a Wassenaar-compliant
country with an encrypted device or two without much hassle. However,
this practice requires that you do not create, share, sell, or distribute the
cryptographic technology while you are there.
As of 2019, 42 countries are participating in the arrangement. So
although many countries of the world have happily signed the Wassenaar
Agreement, the previously mentioned rogue states did not, and neither did
the countries we’re about to explore in detail later in this chapter.

EU Dual-Use Controls

Basically dual-use items are goods, software, and technology that can be
used for both civilian and military applications. The European Union
has controls in place for dual-use items. Naturally, technology related to
digital cryptography is considered a dual-use item. EU dual-use controls
for encryption tools are influenced by the principles outlined in the
Wassenaar Arrangement. General dual-use items may be traded freely
within the EU, apart from some particularly sensitive items, which include
nuclear materials and hazardous biological agents.
There has been a tug of war starting from 2016 between those EU states
who wish to add various new categories of cyber-surveillance items to the
list and those who do not. These cyber-surveillance tools would include
items that “intercept mobile phones, remotely hack into computers,
circumvent passwords, or identify internet users.” Adding these items to

160
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

the list of EU dual-use controls would probably increase the privacy level
of the average European citizen to some degree as it would make access
to these technologies harder for some intrusive non-EU nations. However,
some EU members, including Germany and France, seem to vehemently
oppose this proposed action. As of 2020, the debate is still ongoing.

The Import of Cryptography

Some countries go even further than implementing strict key disclosure
laws when it comes to controlling cryptography. A government has
its reasons for banning the import of encryption tools made abroad.
Microsoft’s BitLocker software and many other such technologies aren’t
welcome in some jurisdictions, not without a license at least.
For one, cryptographic technology may include backdoors through
which the government itself may become subject to closer scrutiny by
outside actors. A populace using encrypted communication is harder
to eavesdrop on even by its own intelligence agencies. Also, imported
encryption tools may offer foreign powers the chance to influence a
country’s commerce and economy to an uncomfortable degree. Due to the
aforementioned reasons, some countries prefer to have their own internal
software for any cryptographic purposes.
Be aware that the countries we’ll be looking into may not take too well
to a tourist bringing an encrypted device at their border. If you plan to
travel to these nations, bring fully unencrypted devices only to save you
from questioning, detainment, and potentially fines. Devices transported
across international borders may be subject to scrutiny by the government
agencies at your destination. Customs officials might seize your device,
duplicating its contents before handing it back to you. The device may or
may not be in tip-top shape after such a procedure.

161
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

The so-called rogue states of Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Venezuela
are the most strict about having foreign cryptographic materials on their
soil. Even certain operating systems might not be welcome in some of
these nations. Entering these countries as a tourist with a device that has
a, say, specific version of the Windows operating system with BitLocker
installed might itself prove to be an issue – even if you don’t possess any
data encrypted with it.
Now, the following paragraphs provide a look at some of the nations
with strict controls on the import of cryptographic technology. Some of
this data comes from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), an
independent nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C., one of the
foremost authorities on the subject.
Algeria requires “all terminal equipment and radio-electric installation
which is intended to be connected to a public communications network,
made for the domestic market, offered for sale or distributed for free” to be
approved prior to import. This almost definitely includes cryptography-­
related technology. The approval must be obtained from the Regulatory
Authority of Post and Electronic Communications under the Ministry of
Post, Telecommunications, Technologies and Digitalization.
In Belarus a license from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the State
Center for Information Security of the Security Council is required to import
or export cryptographic technology. Cryptography used by businesses may
be subject to additional scrutiny or limitations.
China needs you to apply for a permit from the Beijing Office of
State Encryption Administrative Bureau for any of your cryptographic
needs. As of January 1st 2020, the State Council Order no 273 requires
that the import and export of encryption products needs a license by the
National Commission on Encryption Code Regulations/State Cryptography
Administration. Also, be aware that electronics purchased from China may
or may not contain software which spies on its users.

162
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Egypt’s Telecommunication Regulations prohibit “the import,

manufacture or assembly of any telecommunication equipment without
a license from the National Telecom Regulatory Authority according to the
standards and specifications approved by it.” This most likely applies to
encryption technology as well.
The import of encryption is highly controlled in Ethiopia. The
Proclamation on Telecom Fraud Offenses criminalizes the manufacture,
assembly or import of any telecommunications equipment without a
permit.” This in all likelihood includes any type of encryption software. The
punishment is between ten and fifteen years of “rigorous imprisonment”
and a fine of between 100,000 ETB and 150,000 ETB (or between 3500 USD
and 5200 USD, respectively)
Israel, while not a Wassenaar member per se, has a domestic law
that adopts all Wassenaar controls automatically, including the personal
use exemption for encrypted data. However, you are required to present
your passwords if requested by the border security or you may face some
displeasing consequences. This is to prove you are in possession of
personal data only.
There has been conflicting information concerning Saudi Arabia’s
stance on cryptography over the years. When traveling to the country, it’s
best to avoid bringing encryption-related materials of any kind – and not
use any when on their soil.
In Iran, a license issued by Iran’s Supreme Council for Cultural
Revolution is required. You should be aware that even if you received said
license, exporting cryptographic technology from the United States to Iran
violates US laws, as Iran is classified as a “state of concern.”
For Kazakhstan, importing or exporting cryptographic products
requires a license from the Licensing Commission of the Committee of
National Security. Although the country hasn’t signed the Wassenaar
Agreement, Kazakhstan offers a personal use exemption in the spirit of
said agreement; you shouldn’t have an issue with an encrypted device on
you over there as a tourist.

163
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

In Morocco, the import, export, or use of cryptographic technology

without prior declaration is a criminal offense. Any such declarations
should be addressed to the Directorate General for Information Systems
Security of Morocco. Failing to do so is punishable by up to one year’s
imprisonment and a fine of up to 100,000 MAD which is around 10,400 USD.
Myanmar (formerly Burma) has a de jure penalty of five to ten
years of imprisonment for acts concerning unlawful import or export of
technology. And what is appropriate technology can be governed by the
Myanmar Computer Science Development Council. There has not been
a single sentencing that involved digital cryptography in Myanmar as of
2019. However, don’t push your luck; it’s best to not utilize encrypted data
within their borders. What is known is that domestic cryptography within
Myanmar requires a license.
Pakistan regulates the sale and use of cryptographic hardware
and software. Such activities require an approval from Pakistan
Telecommunications Authority (PTA).
In Russia, a license is required for “distributing and maintaining
encryption facilities, providing encryption services, and developing and
manufacturing encryption facilities protected by means of encryption.”
These licenses are provided by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and
possibly from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade as well.
Also, Russian law requires that “organizers of information distribution”
add “additional coding” (i.e., backdoors) to transmitted electronic
messages for the FSB to be able to decrypt them at will.
Senegal’s Law on Cryptography simply states that “the supply or
importation of a means of cryptology which does not solely perform
functions of authentication and integrity control requires approval from
the National Cryptology Commission.” One should consult said agency
before importing any type of encryption technology to Senegal, just to be
on the safe side.

164
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

In Tunisia, a government agency called Centre d’Etudes et de

Recherches des Télécoms (CERT) needs to examine the workings of any
imported cryptographic technology. Using encryption in the country
apparently requires one to hand over their passwords to the government.
This seems to be an implementation of the key escrow system as discussed
previously in this chapter. Domestic use of encryption is supervised by the
Tunisian Ministry of Defense, while requests for a license should be sent to
the National Agency for Electronic Certification (ANCE).
Both the export and import of cryptographic technology in Ukraine
requires a license issued by the Department of Special Telecommunication
Systems and Protection of Information of the Security Service of Ukraine
(SBU). The country has, however, signed the Wassenaar Agreement. This
means a personal use exemption is in effect.

Corporate Data Security Laws

Businesses in the United States have their digital security laws regulated
by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent law enforcement
agency. Your business or organization is required to have specific
safeguards in place to protect the privacy and personal information of
your customers. If such safeguards are neglected, the FTC is obligated to
seek civil monetary penalties. No business, big or small, is exempt from
FTC’s authority on these matters. Corporate giants Google, Facebook, and
Microsoft have all been reprimanded by the agency in recent years. In
short, organizations of all sizes should have a dedicated security officer to
oversee all matters relating to data security – and use strong encryption for
their users’ data. Leave no customer dataset unencrypted.

165
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

The FTC Safeguards Rule

While the FTC isn’t exactly easy on any type of business, its requirements
for privacy are even stricter for financial institutions. A perhaps surprising
amount of businesses fall under this classification, including not only
banks or check-cashing companies but also mortgage brokers, real estate
appraisers, professional tax preparers, and even courier services. These
stricter privacy policies for financial institutions are collectively known as
the FTC Safeguards Rule. Again, the size of the business is irrelevant; the
agency monitors all.
The FTC Safeguards Rule took effect in 2003 and continues to be the
gold standard for customer privacy with frequent amendments. Its main
requirements include the following:

• The business should have one or more employees to

coordinate its information security program.

• Risks to customer information in each relevant area of

the company’s operation should be identified.

• The effectiveness of the current safeguards for

controlling these risks should be evaluated on a regular
basis.

• Continued evaluation of the program in light of

relevant circumstances, including changes in the firm’s
business or operations or the results of security testing
and monitoring.

Some hands-on solutions recommended by the FTC include the

following:

• The usage of strong passwords at all times (i.e.,

requiring passwords with at least six characters,
consisting of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers,
and symbols)

166
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

• Using password-activated screensavers which lock

up a device after a period of inactivity.

• Making sure employees store mobile devices in a

secure place when not in use. Also, making sure the
data on these devices is encrypted whenever possible.

• Using discretion when allowing an employee to

access customer data from outside of the workplace
(i.e., telecommuting). This includes having employees
install the latest anti-malware software on their remote
workstations.

• Disabling access to any user data from former

employees immediately after termination.

• Protecting the servers containing user data from

physical hazards such as fire or flooding.

Organizations are given a fairly large degree of flexibility by the

FTC on how they follow the Safeguards Rule. Cryptographic and other
technological solutions aside, businesses are also recommended to
perform background checks on all of their potential employees and
having them sign confidentiality agreements. All passwords within an
organization’s systems within the reach of a terminated employee should
be changed when said employee is terminated. Also, information inside
an organization should be kept compartmentalized at all times and
transferred between groups on a need-to-know basis.
For any medium or large business, security testers (i.e., paid hackers)
should be hired to evaluate your systems’ defensive capabilities against
cyberattacks. Vulnerability scans can be performed by a small team;
these usually consist of the use of various types of vulnerability scanner
software. The next stage in security testing consists of penetration tests.
This is basically a controlled hacking situation, where the tester does his

167
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

or her very best to enter a system, naturally without causing any actual
damage to the business. The results of these processes may end up saving
your organization quite a bit of money in the long term and should be thus
prioritized high.

More on Privacy Laws in the United States

Like you probably know by now, digital privacy laws refer to the privacy
of communication and individualized data in a digital, often online
context. Medical privacy laws deal with the use of patient records and
an individual’s genetic material. Financial privacy laws address how
companies process financial consumer data.
Table 7-1 lists some of the most relevant pieces of US federal legislation
for each category of data. All of these acts have a great deal to do with you
and your organization’s privacy; the bigger your business grows, the more
you should know about all of them.

Table 7-1. Most relevant US federal legislation for privacy

Digital Privacy Medical Privacy Financial Privacy

Cyber Intelligence Health Information Technology for Fair Credit

Sharing and Protection Economic and Clinical Health Act Reporting Act
Act of 2015 (CISPA) (HITECH)
Electronic Communications Genetic Information Electronic Funds
Privacy Act Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) Transfer Act
Economic Espionage Act Health Insurance Portability and Fair Debt
Accountability Act (HIPAA) Collection
Practices Act
Computer Fraud and The Privacy Act of 1974 Bank Secrecy Act
Abuse Act

168
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

A Few Words on CISPA

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (which finally passed
in 2015 after some years in limbo) is a rather controversial piece of
legislation. Its opponents criticize the act for allowing eavesdropped,
private communications to be handed over to the government without
warrants. Vocal critics of CISPA include former Representative Ron Paul,
the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF), and the over 840,000 people
who signed an online petition at Avaaz.org.
However, CISPA is not without support among some major companies;
these include Microsoft, IBM, and AT&T. Supporters for the act have
stated it provides streamlined means for delivering potentially critical
information to the right officials. In fact, a total of over 800 companies have
voiced their support for CISPA.

State-Level Privacy Legislation

Privacy laws vary greatly from state to state within the United States.
Many states have recently passed new legislation in numerous varieties
of privacy laws. State laws typically complement federal laws, which are
applied nationwide.
Interestingly, California is extremely serious about digital privacy
with its 12 major pieces of related legislation, perhaps due to being the
most populous state in the United States – and housing some major
corporations. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 caused quite
a bit of stress among the bigger businesses in order to satisfy the growing
privacy needs of the people, who now have an opportunity to opt out of
certain data collection practices.

169
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Now, should you travel or do business in the United States, you

might benefit from an overview of the types of privacy-related legislation
categories currently in effect. Table 7-2 shows the major emphases in
US statewide legislation at a glance. Note: The S character signifies a
particularly strong set of laws in a specific field, with seven or more pieces
of state legislation in effect as of 2020.

Table 7-2. An overview of US privacy-related laws

State State Law(s) in Effect State State Law(s)
in Effect

Alabama Medical, data privacy, Montana Data privacy,

financial digital
Alaska Medical, data security, Nebraska Medical, digital
financial
Arizona Medical (S), digital Nevada Medical, digital
Arkansas Medical, digital New Medical (S), digital
Hampshire
California Medical, digital (S), financial New Mexico Medical (S), digital
Colorado Medical, digital, financial New York Medical
Connecticut Digital N. Carolina Medical, data
privacy
Delaware Medical, digital N. Dakota Medical, data
privacy
Florida Medical, digital Ohio Data privacy
Georgia Medical Oklahoma Medical, digital
Hawaii Medical Oregon Medical, digital
(continued)

170
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

Table 7-2. (continued)

State State Law(s) in Effect State State Law(s)

in Effect

Idaho Medical Pennsylvania Medical, digital

Illinois Medical (S), digital Rhode Island Medical (S), digital
Indiana Digital S. Carolina Medical
Iowa Medical (S) S. Dakota Medical
Kansas Medical Tennessee Medical, digital
Kentucky Medical Texas Medical
Louisiana Medical, digital Utah Medical, digital
Maine Medical, digital Vermont Medical, digital,
financial
Maryland Medical (S), digital Virginia Medical, digital
Massachusetts Medical, digital Washington Medical, digital
Michigan Medical (S), digital West Virginia Medical, digital
Minnesota Medical, digital Wisconsin Digital privacy
Mississippi Medical Wyoming Medical
Missouri Medical, digital

A Primer on US Legal Terms

If you are a non-US citizen, you may need to brush up on some legal
terminology in use in the region. This section is just what you need in
that case.

171
Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

A subpoena is also called a witness summons, and it simply refers to

a written order provided by a court of law which compels an individual
to either provide (a) a witness testimony or (b) some other type of
evidence, under a penalty. The former is known in Latin as subpoena ad
testificandum, while the latter is called subpoena duces tecum.
A grand jury is a group between 16 and 23 citizens who listen to
evidence of criminal allegations, presented by the prosecutors, and
determine whether probable cause exists to believe an individual has
committed an offense. As of 2019, grand juries are only used in the United
States and the Republic of Liberia.
The United States courts of appeals, also referred to as circuit courts,
decide appeals from district courts, which in turn are the general trial
courts. There are 13 courts of appeals in the United States, each usually
presiding over a specific geographic area spanning several states. For
example, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit covers appeals in
Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. However,
the 13th court of appeals, the Federal Circuit, has nationwide jurisdiction
over specific appeals defined by special subject matter.
Contempt of court refers to the offensive act of being disrespectful
toward a court of law and its members. There are two ways a person can
be found in contempt of court: he or she can either display disruptive
behavior toward the legal authorities in the courtroom, or merely fail to
obey a court order.
De jure is a term in Latin which refers to practices signed into law that
are not necessarily enforced in any way. De facto stands for practices that
are not a part of any legislation, but take frequently place regardless.
An Executive Order is an instruction (i.e., a directive) of the President
of the United States that operates on the Federal level and carries the force
of law. Although the US Constitution lacks a provision that addresses the
use of executive orders per se, the term is mentioned as the instruction
to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” in Article II. The US
Supreme Court has decided that all executive orders from the president

172
 Chapter 7 Prohibitions and Legal Issues

must be supported by the Constitution. Executive orders can be blocked

by the Congress or the Federal courts, but they rarely are. The Office of
the Federal Register is responsible for issuing executive orders in their
sequential numbers. The current record holder for most executive orders
issued remains with President Franklin D. Roosevelt who, during his
exceptional three terms in office, made 3522 orders.
Reasonable suspicion is one of two major legal standards in the
United States which govern the actions of certain government officials,
such as border security and the police. It refers to as what a reasonable
person (i.e., the average person) would consider suspicious. Reasonable
suspicion was solidified in US law with the landmark case of Terry v. Ohio
in 1968 by the Supreme Court. The other main legal standard is probable
cause, which deals with arrests and warrants; it’s mentioned in the
Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution. Out of these two standards,
reasonable suspicion allows for searches, but not handcuffing, arrests, or
other more drastic measures.

In Closing
After finishing this chapter, you should be informed on the following:

• Key disclosure laws in the United States and abroad

• How the importation of cryptographic technology is

viewed by foreign jurisdictions

• What the FTC Safeguards Rule is and when it’s

applicable

• What the most relevant US federal privacy laws are as

well as an overview of US state-level privacy laws

The next chapter will take us into the world of quantum mechanics.
We’ll explore topics such as qubits and superposition. Excited? You
should be!

173
CHAPTER 8

Quantum Computing:
The Next Big
Paradigm
As well established and world changing as the digital revolution has been,
its days are numbered. The never-ending march of scientific progress will
deliver us a new paradigm in the very near future: quantum computing.
Its applications, while at first purely theoretical, will eventually cover
many aspects of our lives: communications, medicine, security, and
even world politics. In this chapter we’ll take a glance at some of the
ramifications of quantum computing before moving into specifics with
the chapters to follow.

Bits vs. Qubits

For the past century all computing devices have basically used the same
approach of binary code. Although there have been many varieties of
computing architectures, they have all shared this fundamental method
of operation. However, within the next ten to fifteen years, this is going to
change radically.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 175

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_8
Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

Now, in quantum computing the smallest unit of measurement

is called a quantum bit or a qubit. Classical computing, that is,
binary code, uses either zeros and ones, while qubit units utilize a
phenomenon called superposition to occupy both zero and one at the
same time. Qubits are therefore two-state units by nature, operating in
a continuum of changing values. This has enormous implications for
calculations of any kind. The century of silicone chips and traditional
binary computing is coming to an end just as the era of vacuum tube
computers did before that.

Into the Bloch Sphere

Quantum superposition found in qubits is often demonstrated using a
Bloch sphere (see Figure 8-1). You don’t need to grasp this figure just yet;
for now, a quick glance is enough. We’ll delve much deeper into what
the implications of quantum physics actually are in the next chapter.
For now, just know this: quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory of
physics within the realm of sub-atomic particles representing a wondrous
paradoxical world of curiosities.
However, if you’re interested in some of the inner workings of qubits,
read on. If not, feel free to skip to the section titled “Six Ways Qubits Will
Change Our World.”

176
 Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

Figure 8-1. A geometrical representation of a qubit known as the

“Bloch sphere” in which two states (0 and 1) are represented by
vectors ∣0 ⟩ and ∣1⟩. The diagram was devised by physicist Felix
Bloch (1905–1983)

Physically qubits can take the form of single electrons, pulled right out
of an atom. When left to their own devices, qubits contain probabilities
for delivering the value of one (1) or zero (0). Upon observation using a
powerful electron microscope, the qubit will stick to representing one of
those values; in quantum physics, the act of observation alone defines the
outcome.
Now, a vector is a quantity with direction and size. If you were to travel
north from your current location with the speed of, say, 12 km per hour for
an hour, that dataset would constitute a vector. Similarly, vectors are key
ingredients in specifying quantum superposition. Qubits are represented
using Bloch vectors. These are unit vectors (i.e., vectors with the upper
length of 1) used to indicate points within the Bloch sphere. The one/zero
state of the qubit is represented by the point where the vector collides with
the surface of the sphere. The Bloch sphere also represents a qubit’s phase
information using rotation around the Z axis.

177
Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

In the Bloch sphere from Figure 8-1, the symbol θ (theta) represents a
point’s co-latitude with respect to the z axis, while the φ (phi) represents
longitude along the x axis, specifying a point in the sphere. States zero and
one are displayed as vectors ∣0 ⟩ and ∣1⟩ on the top and bottom areas of
the sphere, respectively. Make note of ∣ψ⟩ (psi): it’s there to represent the
superposition of these vectors/states.

Bra-ket notation refers to the practice of using specific symbols like

the angle brackets and the vertical bar to denote vectors such as
quantum states. You may have spotted the use of this system in some
of the previous paragraphs in this chapter. Invented by theoretical
physicist Paul Dirac in 1939, bra-ket notation is sometimes also
referred to as Dirac notation.

A Bloch sphere demonstrates that a qubit must be represented

using two complex numbers which, in turn, consist of real numbers and
imaginary numbers. Bloch vectors are always complex numbers.
Here’s a refresher on the different types of numbers we’ve touched on
so far:

• Real numbers are basically any number one can come

up with on the spot (e.g., 30, 5.2, -4.4). Squared real
numbers, even when negative, give a positive result
(e.g., 5 x 5 = 25, -4 x -4 = 16). A unit of a real number is
simply 1.

• Imaginary numbers give a negative result when

squared (and yes, they are not actually that imaginary).
A unit of this type of number is the square root of -1 as
in √(−1). For example, 4i is an imaginary number
(-4 x -4 where i x i =-1 results in -16).

178
 Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

• Complex numbers are combinations of real and

imaginary numbers. They follow the form a + bi, where
a is a real number and b is an imaginary number.
Again, the “i” represents the solution of the equation
x2 = −1. Examples of complex numbers include 27 + 3i,
-4.1 + 1.9i, and 3.2 + 1.3i.

A series of interconnected qubits can express numerous different

values at the same time using superposition. This is why quantum devices
are untold times more powerful than classical digital units at virtually any
type of calculations. Increasing the number of qubits in a quantum-based
device has an exponential effect on its computing power. That quickly adds
to a lot of computational capacity. Quantum computers can also store
data more densely than their silicone-based brethren. This experimental
technique is known as superdense coding.

Six Ways Qubits Will Change Our World

We’ll next explore the main realms in which our world might change
forever as quantum computing is gradually introduced in the near future.
The following scenarios are mostly based on some educated guesses by
the author.

Cryptography
One field perhaps most obviously revolutionized by the looming quantum
revolution will be cryptography. The world of sub-atomic particles offers
both powerful new levels of security and detrimental effects on the
integrity of current-generation encryption schemes, many of which will be
compromised. However, panic need not set in just yet. At least for the first
few generations, quantum-based computers are unlikely to do terminal
damage to encryption algorithms not based on prime numbers, such

179
Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

as the puissant Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). However, some

of their weaker brethren (i.e., the 128-bit varieties) are likely to become
considerably more susceptible to brute-force attacks; quantum computers
can process massive amounts of data per cycle compared to their silicone-­
based equivalents.
As will be discussed in detail later in the book, the field of quantum
cryptography won’t be only used to hack older algorithms; it will also
bring about new and potentially unbreakable methods of encryption and
data transmission. While not an actual encryption method, quantum key
distribution (QKD) is a closely related concept which we’ll cover in detail
in the chapters to come. QKD is meant to only provide secure passwords
for use in tandem with a traditional encryption scheme, such as the AES,
constituting a hybrid approach. Key distribution aside, there are a number
of bona fide quantum encryption algorithms in development, one of the
better known being the Kak’s three-stage protocol devised by accomplished
computer scientist Subhash Kak.

Medicine
There is little doubt quantum computing will usher in a new era in
medicine. Medical simulations can be performed at speeds unheard of
until then. Unfazed due to the massive financial incentives involved, big
pharma will be happy to invest in quantum computing. New medications
will be introduced at a much faster rate due to greatly reduced time
needed on clinical trials. Medical schools will delight at the opportunities
provided by new resources and teaching methods. This works also in
reducing the costs of medical training from the students’ point of view in
some instances.
At some point virtual beings will be created; these will be equal to their
real-life counterparts for most, if not all, medical purposes. Operating on a
sub-atomic level, quantum-based technology will be introduced as a cure
for some illnesses considered terminal as of today. A massively accelerated

180
 Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

sequencing of human DNA is another opportunity offered by quantum

computing. Biological immortality may or may not become attainable
for the wealthiest, at least. As with all technology, there will be a dark
side to quantum computing. Qubit-based technology might be used for
engineering new biological threats, such as resistant-treatment diseases,
for use by rogue actors.

In quantum science the act of observing sub-atomic events actually

changes their outcome. Quantum immortality is a thought experiment
in this realm. Basically it purports to a theoretical scenario in which
a lethal device is either used or not used on a human being based
on the outcome of a single quantum-level event. Generally, the
term “quantum immortality” is not to be used when discussing
the potential of, say, quantum-based medicine in achieving actual
immortality as we usually know it.

Crime and Finance

As current-era encryption algorithms become more fragile in the near
future, cybercriminals will look to quantum-based approaches out of
necessity. A minor crisis of cybercrime will take place as soon as the first
wave of quantum computers become mainstream. For one, traditional
types of ransomware simply won’t cut it as private security firms and/
or law enforcement will eventually be armed with a new generation
of cryptographic tools, that is, quantum-based code breakers. Before
any shady actors develop functional quantum cryptanalyses (i.e., anti-­
quantum solutions), there will be a lull in espionage and data theft as well.
The countermeasures against legitimate quantum encryption probably
arrive with a delay of a few years at least.

181
Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

Hacking and code breaking aside, the most imminent problems

potentially accelerated by quantum computing reside in the global
financial sector. Stock markets and their associated shareholders might
find themselves in an unpleasant warm substance as quantum-powered
market manipulation and a new breed of white-collar crime become a
reality.

Blockchains vs. Qubits

A blockchain is a collection of data records/blocks that are linked using
cryptographic means. By nature of their design, blockchains are in most
cases immune to tampering by third-party actors prior, during, and
after transmission. Blockchains are utilized in cryptocurrencies (such as
Bitcoin) and in distributed ledger technology by several global financial
institutions.
Now, cryptocurrencies have been hard to regulate at times and they’ve
thus proposed a threat to suppliers of traditional financial instruments.
The age of quantum computers may actually end this tug of war in favor
of well-established banking institutions. For one, it has been proposed
the technology will break the once-venerable Rivest–Shamir–Adleman
(RSA) algorithm and others, backbones of many blockchains including
Bitcoin, rendering these currencies unusable. Quantum computing offers
potentially several new attack vectors against users of cryptocurrencies, so
hold on to your virtual wallets and keep an eye on this particular quantum-­
based threat.

Blockchain technology was released to public by an individual (or

group) known as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. This is most likely a
pseudonym created for reasons yet unknown.

182
 Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

Entertainment
A boom in quantum-based entertainment is to be expected. Today’s
relatively sophisticated 3D video games will look crude compared to those
powered with processors dishing out several orders of magnitude more of
processing power. This may cause issues with addiction-prone individuals
as a new lifelike wave of immersive entertainment will no doubt hook
many. New virtual and augmented reality applications in particular can
completely take over a vulnerable gamer’s life. If unchecked, such a
scenario might take a toll on the productivity, tax base, and overall stability
of afflicted societies. After all, as of 2020 countries like Japan and South
Korea continue to have a major problem with swathes of young people
dropping out and opting to play current-generation video games en masse
while contributing to society in a diminished manner. In a 2019 survey,
it was estimated that Japan has over 1 million unemployed recluses, or
hikikomori (Kyodo News, 2019). Also, according to Japan’s government-­
run National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, one-­
person households will reach a total 39% by 2040 (Osumi, 2018). With no
family to take care of, electronic entertainment is likely to play a big part in
a Japanese single person’s daily activities.

Manufacturing
There is no doubt quantum computing will revolutionize manufacturing.
The numerous applications of this technology include new power sources,
elaborate risk modeling, advanced robotics, and rapid calculations/
simulations of extremely high precision. All this may also result in less
strain on the environment as power consumption and waste management
in the manufacturing sector is eventually optimized, proving ecologically
superior to current approaches. We can expect a leap forward in industrial
design and product safety, too. As these are still the early years of
quantum-based computing, most businesses will be wary of jumping into

183
Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

the fray. However, as more and more hungry startups and established
brands take on this technology, the temptation to go quantum will become
irresistible for even the most stubborn of companies; in the very near
future, the risks will become negligible, outweighed by benefits in every
metric.

In recent years, industry giants IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and Google

have begun investing in quantum computing in earnest. Many
other companies not open about their research are likely to have
their quantum-based projects listed as “skunkworks” with semi-­
clandestine special teams working for the sake of innovation, free
from the ferrous grip of management.

World Politics
Sooner or later some serious political implications will arise when
considering all of the preceding effects of the quantum revolution.
Basically, quantum computing is the nuclear arms race of the twenty-first
century. The regime which develops the first fully functional quantum
system has the potential means to annihilate even the most secure of
encryption, such as the AES-256, in a matter of months instead of billions
of years as per classical computing devices. Espionage and related
paranoia will reach untold levels when this scenario unfolds. Of course,
belligerent nations in charge of a theoretical quantum supercomputer
are unlikely to advertise its existence until one day all of our banking
systems and state secrets are in jeopardy. In the wrong hands the quantum
revolution could even accelerate a global military conflict.

184
 Chapter 8 Quantum Computing: The Next Big Paradigm

I n Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• How quantum computing differs from classical

computing and what qubits refer to

• What vectors, imaginary numbers, and the Bloch

sphere are and how they relate to quantum computing

• Which six far-reaching effects quantum computing has

on the world

In the next chapter we’ll take a more comprehensive look at the

numerous implications of quantum mechanics, exploring the many ways it
changed our understanding of the world.

R
 eferences
Kyodo News. 2019. Japan Times. Retrieved from: www.japantimes.co.jp/
news/2019/03/29/national/613000-japan-aged-40-64-recluses-says-­
first-­government-survey-hikikomori/
Osumi, Magdalena. 2018. Many of Japan’s growing number of singles
claim they are comfortable facing death alone. Japan Times. Retrieved
from: www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/06/14/national/social-­
issues/many-japans-growing-number-singles-claim-comfortable-­
facing-­death-alone/

185
CHAPTER 9

The Rollicking
World of Quantum
Mechanics
Deepening one’s knowledge on quantum mechanics and related physics
paves the way for a greater understanding of the definite future of
computing and cryptography. Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics
focusing on the smallest scales known to us: the atomic and the sub-­
atomic realms. It has numerous implications for our world, as discussed
in the previous chapter, and it comes with some controversy as well. We’ll
now go more or less clavicle deep into this sub-atomic level and explore its
numerous paradigm-shifting phenomena.

A Few Words on Classical Mechanics

There are roughly two spheres of physics: classical and modern. The
former consists of methods dealing mostly with the motion of visible
objects (such as arrows, apples, and galaxies), while the latter deals with
phenomena and attributes on the scale of a much smaller, sub-atomic
world. Of course, modern physics don’t exist in a vacuum; they do build on
the foundation of classical mechanics.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 187

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_9
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

One of the most monumental works of classical physics, Philosophiae

Naturalis Principia Mathematica, was authored by Sir Isaac Newton
all the way back in 1687. With this trilogy of books, Sir Newton codified
some of the core laws of physics which not surprisingly became known as
Newton’s laws of motion. These are as follows:
• Newton’s first law (the law of inertia). An object either
remains at rest or continues to move at a constant
speed unless acted upon by an external force.

• Newton’s second law. An object, with the constant

mass of m, is influenced by force F, which gives it the
acceleration rate a. The greater the force, the greater
the acceleration. This is formulated as F = ma.

• Newton’s third law (the action–reaction law).

Whenever a body exerts a force on a second body, the
second body exerts a force equal in magnitude, but in
the opposite direction on the first body. In other words,
for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Another fundamental Newton’s law exists: the law of gravitation.

This tenet laid the foundations for superposition, which was described in
Chapter 8. Some refer to this law as Newton’s fourth law. However, it’s best
to only refer to the first three as Newton’s laws; these axioms allowed us
to operate with experimental data while also playing an epistemological
role in classical physics. Newton’s law of gravitation is a different beast as
it provided, for the first time, the means of calculating a fundamental force
(Newburgh, Ronald. 2001. Phys. Educ. 36, 202).

Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge. It deals with

questions like “what are the limits of human knowledge?” and “what
is the truth?”.

188
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Introducing Modern Physics

Modern physics is sometimes referred to as post-Newtonian physics. This
branch of mechanics has basically two cornerstones: quantum mechanics
and Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. This theory in turn consists
of two components: special relativity and general relativity. The former
describes the relationship between space and time. The latter is a theory of
gravitation, building on Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation. What
follows are the main discoveries of the aforementioned two theories in a
thoroughly condensed form.
Einstein’s theory of special relativity in a considerably small
nutshell:

• Published in 1905, this is the generally accepted and

confirmed theory about the relationship between space
and time.

• Special relativity basically consists of two axioms:

1. The laws of physics are identical in all resting

frames of reference (i.e., when objects are not
acted upon by external forces).
2. The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for
all observers, regardless of the movement of the
light source or that of the observer.

• The famous equation E = mc2 (i.e., the mass–energy

equivalence formula) is often attributed to Einstein’s
theory of special relativity. It reads “energy equals
mass multiplied by the speed of light (c) squared.” The
formula denotes a connection between energy (E)
and mass (m); anything with mass has an equivalent
amount of energy and vice versa.

189
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

E = mc2 is actually short for E2=(mc2)2+(pc)2. For the sake of brevity,

the equation is usually displayed in its simplified and thus more
media-friendly form. Oh, and the p in the longer form stands for
momentum.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity in another very tiny shell:

Next up is a condensed version of the other seminal Einstein’s theory.

• Published in 1915, this is Einstein’s comprehensive

theory on gravity.

• General relativity expands on the theory of special

relativity by including areas/masses that are
accelerating in relation to each other. The interaction
between mass and space-time is what constitutes our
understanding of gravitation.

• The theory consists of specific field equations, which

are used to represent the dynamics of changes in time
and space distribution. These are usually referred to as
Einstein field equations (EFEs).
• General relativity shows that light follows a so-called
“curvature in space-time” as it passes bigger celestial
objects, such as neutron stars and black holes. The
latter are areas of exceptionally strong gravitational
forces from which not even light can escape. Black
holes are thought to form when very large stars
collapse.

190
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Classical physics can explain many workings of the universe. However,

it has some blind spots so it’s not without issues. We won’t address these
in detail as that is outside of the scope of this book. It’s sufficient to say
classical mechanics work great on a large enough scale (i.e., the ­macro-­
scale), but less so in the smaller realms of existence. When it comes to the
micro-side of things, that’s where quantum mechanics comes to shine and
that’s where we’re headed next.

Atoms and Sub-atomic Particles

Let’s now take a somewhat closer look at sub-atomic particles and
how they’ve known to behave in the quantum realm. This way we’ll be
expanding our knowledge on qubits (as discussed in the previous chapter),
for one.
Now, atoms were once thought to be the smallest unit of matter. At
roughly tenth-millionth of a millimeter, they most certainly are quite small.
In fact, classical physics cannot accurately predict an atom’s behavior. As
science and engineering progressed over time, we began to reach scales of
matter much smaller than the atomic one. The smallest type of particles
that we’re currently able to study is known as elementary particles. Atoms
consist of electrons, protons, and neutrons. All atoms are formed from the
elementary particles.
Their diminutive size notwithstanding, these particles have some
rather peculiar properties. One of them, called spin (usually denoted with S),
refers to the angular momentum intrinsic to elementary particles. Unlike,
say, a bowling ball, a sub-atomic particle never actually stops spinning.
You can make it change direction, but you’ll have a hard time bringing it
to a halt. Spin in the sub-atomic world is an immutable quality, like mass
or charge. Think of elementary particles as mathematical points in time
space. Table 9-1 shows a partial table of known sub-atomic particles.

191
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Table 9-1. A partial table of known sub-atomic particles, mass and

charge not included
The Fermions The Bosons
First generation Second Third generation
generation
Quarks Up Charm Top Gluon Higgs
(spin 0)
Down Strange Bottom Photon
Leptons Electron Muon Tau Z boson
Electron neutrino Muon neutrino Tau neutrino W boson

Now, the first major group of elementary particles is known as the

fermions. They have been given rather exotic names, such as “charm,”
“strange,” and “bottom.” These are sometimes known as flavors. The
fermions are divided into quarks and leptons; all fermions have a spin
value of ½. The second major group of elementary particles, the bosons,
carry a spin value of 1, save for the rather recently discovered Higgs boson
which has a spin of 0 (zero).
The fermions are also often categorized by their generation. Each
generation in general has more mass than the previous one (e.g., up quarks
have less mass than top quarks).

Black Holes and Their Applications

Black holes aren’t just a sci-fi trope. For one, they potentially offer
incredible sources of energy ripe for harvesting as soon as the technology
is there. If our scientists and engineers one day manage to leverage the
power of a black hole, we would basically enter a new golden age of
technology.

192
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

The average black hole is relatively small at roughly 30 kilometers in

diameter. Supermassive black holes, also known as quasars, are a different
beast at around 125 billion kilometers in diameter. They emit enormous
amounts of energy, probably contributing to the rate of star formation
within a galaxy (Hopkins, Hernquist, L., Cox, T. J. et al. 2006).
Yet another class of black holes are the primordial black holes. The
formation of these types of archaic black holes is due to a fluctuation in the
density of the universe, inducing its gravitational collapse. Coming into
existence in under a second after the Big Bang, primordial black holes have
much less mass than their younger brethren; they are theorized to be some
10-5 grams in mass in their smallest variety (Klesman, 2019).
Now, a so-called no-hair theorem states that after formation a black
hole has only three physical properties: mass, angular momentum, and
charge. Any other information present during a black hole’s formation is
simply destroyed. Therefore, black holes sharing the same values for these
properties are thought to be indistinguishable. Whether this theorem holds
true in reality is yet to be confirmed.

It wasn’t until 2019 when scientists actually managed to photograph

a black hole using a synchronized array of eight telescopes stationed
around various parts of our planet. The resulting at-first modest
seeming image of an orange blob carries a lot of significance.

Through the Hubble Space Telescope, we can currently observe about

a hundred billion galaxies, a number which may represent a very small
amount of the total. It’s very likely that most galaxies have a massive
black hole at their center. Let’s now go through the basic regions of these
glorious theoretical masses in space (see Figure 9-1).

193
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Figure 9-1. The main regions in a black hole visualized

The Quiet Region and the Ergosphere

The quiet region is a geometric area where bodies of mass shouldn’t have
much difficulty in pulling away from the center of a black hole: no need to
break the limits of the speed of light here. Now, in an ergosphere the forces
of gravity slowly start to go into overdrive. However, objects not too close
to the event horizon can still escape this region. The size of an ergosphere
is deemed to be proportional to a black hole’s gravitational strength and
angular momentum (i.e., its quantity of rotation).
An ergosphere is sometimes confused with the accretion disk. This is
a disk formed of particles orbiting the black hole, while the ergosphere
refers to the broader region surrounding it. Black hole accretion disks often
consist of matter in the x-ray part of the spectrum.

194
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

The Event Horizon (No, Not the 1990s Movie)

These days somewhat a part of the general discourse, an event horizon
refers to a boundary beyond which events cannot influence observers.
The term is often used when describing the immediate area around
black holes. The only way to pull yourself out of this area would to travel
faster than the speed of light. This isn’t possible according to current
understanding. After entering the event horizon, you’re well on your way
into a theorized singularity.
Now, the physical radius of an event horizon surrounding a
nonrotating black hole is known as the Schwarzschild radius. This concept
also defines that any object with a radius smaller than its Schwarzschild
radius is to be a black hole.

Singularity Speculation
Inside the black hole lurks the mighty singularity. This is basically an
unknown region of infinite density as described by Einstein’s theory
of general relativity; the further inside you go, the more distortion in
space-time you would experience. Laws of physics break down inside
singularities (hence all the speculation about these things in science
fiction). However, there are some differing voices to the very existence
of this phenomenon; some scientists insist singularities as per Einstein’s
theories are flawed.
A new paradigm regarding black holes and their singularities is
emerging in the scientific community. This is known as loop quantum
gravity. Basically, this new theory introduces a new powerful repulsive
force which is able to counteract the pull of a black hole. Loop quantum
gravity isn’t a replacement for general relativity, rather, it builds on its
principles (Sholtis, 2019).

195
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

In 2006 Dr. Manjir Samanta-Laughton proposed a new theory called

The Black Hole Principle for the workings of the universe. Her book Punk
Science introduced the idea that black holes actually introduce energy into
our universe instead of merely absorbing it. Also according to Dr. Samanta-­
Laughton, black holes exist pretty much everywhere, including inside
living organisms. Although the jury is out, there is some evidence for parts
of this theory.
Perhaps our gravitationally talented friends lurking in outer space
aren’t indeed as destructive as we think. It has been postulated that a black
hole computer is feasible in the future. There are types of photons (i.e.,
light particles) constantly being emitted around black holes in an area
known as an accretion disk. When escaping this area and experiencing
radical changes to their angle of polarization and orbital angular
momentum, these particles display properties which could eventually be
harnessed for quantum computing (Racorean, 2018, p. 254-264).
Needless to say, this would give us an incredible amount of data
storage and computing power, putting any run-of-the-mill quantum
computer to shame. At that point we might have 100% secure
communications on our hands, for one.

The Standard Model

It’s generally thought there are four fundamental forces at work in the
universe from the physics point of view. These are as follows:

• The electromagnetic force. All electrically charged

particles manifest this force. It’s the binding “glue”
that keeps molecules together. The electromagnetic
force is responsible for all chemical processes between
interactions of the electrons in neighboring atoms. And
how do magnets work? Through this particular force, of
course.

196
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

• The weak nuclear force. This force governs the

radioactive decay of atoms as well as serving an
important role in nuclear fission. For one, the sun is
powered by the processes manifested by the weak
nuclear force. This force can also change a sub-atomic
particle of one type into a completely different one.

• The strong nuclear force. All ordinary matter in

the universe is thought to be held together by this
force. Like its name implies, this is one formidable
power. Interestingly, the strong nuclear force is most
potent the closer its governed bodies (i.e., sub-atomic
particles) remain.

• Gravity. This force, unfamiliar to none, holds planets

and galaxies in their orbits. And should a chunky
middle-aged man jump on a trampoline, you’d see just
what gravity is capable of. While this may sound like a
formidable force, and it is, under most daily scenarios,
gravity is actually the weakest of the four. For example,
if you want to counteract Earth’s gravitational pull, just
lift that apple that fell off the ground.
In the mid-1970s, the term Standard Model was coined to describe
the unified scientific theory describing three of the aforementioned
forces; it hasn’t incorporated gravity as of yet. If the gravitational force was
somehow integrated into the other force theories, we would get a so-called
theory of everything (TOE).
There’re also some murmurs about a potential fifth fundamental
force. This would cover the so-called dark matter. Well over half of our
known universe is estimated to be made of this mysterious energy (Baudis
2012, p.94-108). It’s called dark matter because it doesn’t seem to interact
with the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light, in that many

197
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

ways. Being so hard to detect, dark matter is a mostly theorized element.

Therefore, a fifth fundamental force is yet to gain wide approval in the
global scientific community; we’re stuck with four forces for the time
being.

Dark matter is not the same as dark energy, which is still a related
concept. Dark energy refers to another mostly theoretical force which
has been used to explain the accelerating rate at which the universe
seems to be expanding. Postulated by many scientists in the past,
this phenomenon was confirmed in 1998 by two award-winning
multinational research teams.

A Brief History of the Higgs Boson

Named after British physicist Peter Higgs, this elusive boson was finally
discovered in 2012 using the Large Hadron Collider at the Conseil Européen
pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN). The Higgs boson was an until-then
theorized elementary particle that would complete the picture on how
particles have mass in the first place.
The Higgs boson is not surprisingly closely related to the Higgs field;
this refers to a universal quantum field that separates massless particles
into those with mass. In this, all-pervasive field particles are issued mass
using a so-called Higgs mechanism.
A popular analogy for the Higgs field is to think of the functioning of
a prism. When issued one type of white light, the glass projects multiple
bands of color. More accurately put, the Higgs boson operates using a
phenomenon known as spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Mainstream media has rather pompously dubbed the Higgs boson
“The God Particle” to the dismay of some. However, this boson is quite
revelatory and might pave the way for understanding the mysteries of dark
matter, for one.

198
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

More Quantum Magic

As discussed in the previous chapter, there are a fair number of interesting
properties to sub-atomic particles. Now, you should take a relatively deep
breath before proceeding with the chapter.

The Uncertainty Principle

Presented in 1927 by German physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901–
1976), the uncertainty principle basically states that the more precision
is used for the measurement of one property of a particle (e.g., its
mass), the less precise the calculation of an associated property
becomes (e.g., its position). In other words, you can’t know everything
about a system even using the approaches of quantum physics. The
double-slit experiment, discussed next, is an apt way to demonstrate the
uncertainty principle in action.

 ouble-Slit Experiments: The Wave–Particle

D
Duality
A phenomenon known as wave–particle duality is central to quantum
mechanics. It states that every quantum entity can be approached either as
a particle or a wave. Upon discovery this caused some confusion as it isn’t
quite what classical particle physics stated. As Einstein stated, we suddenly
had two contradictory views on reality; when separated, neither can offer a
satisfactory explanation for the workings of light, for one, but put together
they certainly can.

199
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Now, sub-atomic particles simply exhibit two different behaviors:

that of a particle or that of a wave. An experiment known as the double-­
slit experiment demonstrated this. Devised in 1801 by physicist Thomas
Young (1773–1829), this experiment at first dealt with light-related
properties only. It was further refined by numerous scientists a century
or so later to include electrons, atoms, and molecules. Basically, in the
double-slit experiment, a beam of light (say, a laser) is directed at a
plate with two holes (see Figure 9-2). The light is then observed on a
screen behind this plate. The wave properties in light cause these waves
passing through the two slits an interference, producing bands of various
brightness on the rear screen; this wouldn’t happen if purely particle-­
based physics were at play (see Figure 9-3). However, each individual
photon still (i.e., light particle) passes through a single slit like it would
in classical particle physics instead of both holes. This seems to be
the behavior with other types of particles as well, including electrons.
Again, larger entities, such as molecules, also exhibit this behavior in the
experiment.

Figure 9-2. The basic setup of a double-slit experiment representing

the expected result

200
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Figure 9-3. The basic setup of a double-slit experiment with the

actual result

 aves, Phase, and Quantum Coherence/

W
Decoherence
As you may have already gathered, in quantum mechanics particles
are described as wave functions. These are probabilistic mathematical
representations of quantum states. A definite phase relation between these
waves/quantum states is called coherence. This is a necessary attribute in
quantum computing and all of its related applications.
As a reminder, a wave refers to a time-dependent quantity set in a
physical or theoretical space. Waves in motion carry energy. All matter
operates in waves. Mechanical waves need a medium to operate in (e.g.,
water or sand), whereas electromagnetic waves (e.g., light) can operate
in a vacuum. A phase describes the relationship between waves (see
Figure 9-4); out-of-phase waves are usually representative of some type of
distortion, asymmetry, or (in the quantum realm) decoherence.

201
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Figure 9-4. Phase relation visualized. The above two waves are in
phase, and below they’re out of phase

Now, in a completely isolated system a quantum coherence would in

theory last forever. Measuring parts of such a system without interfering
with its coherence is unfortunately impossible. With more measurement,
more decoherence would be introduced into a quantum system. Therefore,
not even quantum mechanisms are impervious to the potentially
detrimental effects of time and measurement; this vulnerability is to a
degree shared with classical physics and their applications when it comes
to their eventual losses of energy.

The Planck Constant and Planck Units

Presented to the world by Nobel Prize–winning physicist Max Planck
(1858–1947), Planck units are used for measurements on the smallest scale
in physics. There are five base units and a plethora of derived ones; we’ll
only go through the former.

202
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

Now it’s time to glance at the most relevant Planck units in some
detail to give you an understanding of why they are crucial to quantum
mechanics. Planck also formulated an important physics constant which
we’ll discuss first. Prepare yourself for an onslaught of Planck!

The Planck Constant

The Planck’s constant defines the amount of energy a photon (i.e., an
elementary light particle) can carry; it defines the smallest unit for energy.
These constants are whole number multiples of base number labeled h.
This means particles vibrate at, say, base h or 4h, but not 2.4h or 1.6h.

The exact value of the Planck constant has been refined and updated
over the decades. As of 2019, the value of this constant was fixed at
6.62607015x10-34 Joule seconds according to the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST).

I. Planck Length

The unit used to measure the distance light travels during one unit
of Planck time is known as the Planck length. It’s defined using three
fundamental constants of physics, namely, the speed of light in a
vacuum, Newton’s gravitational constant, and the previously mentioned
Planck constant.

203
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

II. Planck Time

You’ve probably heard of milliseconds (1/1000 sec) and maybe even of
microseconds (1/1000 000 sec). While these are both formidably small
increments of time, none is mightier (or more minuscule) than Planck
time. This unit represents the smallest useful piece of time we’re aware
of at approximately 10−43 seconds; this is the time it takes for a photon to
travel at light speed for the length of one Planck length.
Planck time’s usefulness is derived from the fact that smaller time
units may bear little to no relevance in our study of the universe. This unit
is simply small enough to allow us to observe and explain the behavior of
quantum entities accurately.

The age of the universe is estimated to be 8 × 1060 in Planck time

or approximately 13.8 billion years. This was inferred by studying
the oldest objects in the universe and measuring the rate of its
expansion. What sucks is even after all this time there are very few
reliable observations of flying cars on planet Earth.

III. Planck Temperature

Being the polar opposite of absolute zero (e.g., zero kelvins, or −273.15°
Celsius), the Planck temperature represents the known upper limit of
temperature. This stands at 1032 kelvins or about one decillion (or 1,42
0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) degrees of Celsius. There
are no theories for matter’s behavior above the Planck temperature.
Such a set of circumstances would make gravity as potent as any of the
four fundamental forces (see “The Standard Model” in this chapter). To
describe such settings, a widely accepted quantum theory of gravity would
be needed, and as of 2020, one doesn’t exist.

204
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

IV. Planck Charge

The unit denoting electric charge of particles in the Planck system is
known as the Planck charge. This unit is a measurement of wave amplitude
at the first wavelength in an electron’s core when energy is not used for
spin (see section on “Atoms and Sub-atomic Particles” in this chapter). The
longitudinal wave length is reduced when energy is used for spin.

V. Planck Mass

As you may have guessed, the Planck mass represents a unit of mass in
the Planck system; it stands at roughly 21.7647 micrograms. To the naked
human eye, this represents a grain of sand, but by sub-atomic standards,
this is a rather large unit. This is because gravity is a relatively weak force in
the universe, mostly exerting its effects on larger masses.

Quantum Entanglement
One of the most curious (and useful, from an engineering point of view)
properties of sub-atomic particles is known as quantum entanglement.
These particles can be made to share their quantum states, even when they
are physically far apart. This is one phenomenon that is firmly rooted in
modern physics and in some conflict with classical mechanics.
Entangled particles are a valuable resource for several applications.
Currently, quantum entanglement has been demonstrated to work for
distances up to 1200 kilometers. A satellite successfully relayed two
entangled photons to ground stations in 2017 (Juan, Yuan, Yu-Huai
et al., 2017).

205
Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

As mentioned in previous chapters, this feature of the quantum world

alone will revolutionize secure data transmission. Cryptography aside,
quantum entanglement offers other, rather wild applications in the future
such as teleportation (i.e., instant travel).

And Now We Need to Talk About Cats

Being somewhat of the star topic of Chapter 8, superposition must be a
concept of some familiarity to you by now. To recap, elemental particles in
the sub-atomic realm can occupy more than one state at a given time. This
works great for cryptography in the near future and it naturally has several
other implications.
Now, in case you are not familiar with it, Schrödinger’s cat is an oft-told
thought experiment demonstrating superposition devised by Nobel Prize–
winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. This is one of these things
some scientists might appreciate you knowing.
Picture a cat put in a closed box for exactly one hour. A rather devious
set of props are also contained within said box: a Geiger counter with
radioactive particles and a jar of poison. Should the particles decay within
an hour, a hammer will fall down to break the jar and release the poison
killing the cat. Otherwise, the feline will be fine. So, for one hour, the said
mammal is considered simultaneously dead and alive.

I n Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• What classical and modern physics refer to, including

the related main scientific theories

• The basics of the four fundamental forces

206
 Chapter 9 The Rollicking World of Quantum Mechanics

• What the main components of a black hole are

• Which kinds of elementary particles exist and what

their main qualities are, including the story and
importance of the Higgs boson
• The essentials of Max Planck’s natural units

• What the double-slit experiment and Schrödinger’s cat

refers to

In the next chapter we’ll take a few back steps and return to the world
of cryptography, now armed to our molars with new knowledge.

R
 eferences
Newburgh, Ronald. 2001. Phys. Educ. https://doi.org/10.1088/
0031-­9120/36/3/304
Hopkins, P. F., Hernquist, L., & Cox, T. J. et al. A Unified, Merger-driven
Model of the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background,
Supermassive Black Holes, and Galaxy Spheroids, The Astrophysical
Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 163, 2006
Klesman, Alison. What are primordial black holes? Astronomy
Magazine, 2019.
Sholtis, Sam. Beyond the black hole singularity, Penn State Science
Journal, Summer 2019
Samanta-Laughton, Manjir. Punk Science: Inside the Mind of God. O
Books, 2006
Racorean, Ovidiu. Spacetime manipulation of quantum information
around rotating black holes. Annals of Physics. Vol. 398, pp. 254-264, 2018.
Baudis, Laura. Direct dark matter detection: The next decade. Physics of
the Dark Universe, Vol. 1, issues 1-2, 2012.
Juan Yin, Yuan Cao, Yu-Huai Li et.al. Science 16 Jun 2017: Vol. 356,
Issue 6343, pp. 1140-1144

207
CHAPTER 10

Quantum Information
Science 101
The majority of this chapter will be devoted to logic-related side of
quantum-based computing in the form of logic gates and related
concepts. The four main quantum computing models will also be covered,
namely, quantum gate arrays, one-way quantum computers, adiabatic
quantum systems, and topological quantum computers. While not exactly
mainstream right now, quantum devices are well on their way. Absorb
this chapter well and you will stay ahead of the trajectory in these matters;
you’re reading about the near future with all its implications for you and/
or your organization after all.

L ogic Gates
To gain a better understanding of the various concepts and possibilities
quantum-based computing offers, we should visit some areas of classical
computing first. Let’s take a solid gander at logic gates. While originating
firmly in the era of classical computing, they are a relevant concept in the
world of quantum computing as well.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 209

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_10
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Now, a classical logic gate is a construct which accepts binary data;

that is information consisting of either ones or zeros (or trues or falses, or
perhaps smoking and nonsmoking, you name it). After some processing,
a gate outputs a single binary result (e.g., smoking or nonsmoking). These
functions consisting of only two types of elements for both the input and
the output are known as Boolean functions.

You might remember the exclusive OR (XOR) function from

Chapter 3. It’s the logical operation extensively used in several
cryptographic algorithms, including the indomitable AES.

And what is the big deal about these logic gates? Basically, they are
the building blocks of any electronic device. Typically, voltage is fed into
a circuit, and as it traverses through logic gates, a variety of different
things can occur. A simple implementation of logic gates can be found
in electronic door buzzers. Although, say, microprocessors are much
more complex, these two types of devices still share some fundamental
similarities. A central processing unit (CPU) in a modern computer has up
to several billion logic gates, in the form of transistors, built-in. A transistor
refers to an electronic component which can either be used to amplify
signals or to act as a gate.
Now, XOR aside, there are several logical operations most electronic
devices, from digital watches to the latest gaming console, utilize. See
Table 10-1 for a demonstration of how the different logical operators work
on binary data.

210
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Table 10-1. Some common logical operations on binary data

Operation and Symbol Input A Input B Output /Result

Exclusive OR (XOR) A⊕B 0 0 0

0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0
OR A∨B 0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 1
Not OR (NOR) A↓B 0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 0
Exclusive Not OR (XNOR) A⨀B 0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1
AND A·B 0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1
Not AND (NAND) A↑B 0 0 1
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

211
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

As a reminder, although logic gates have their origins in classical

computing, they are still applicable in quantum-based computers as you
will learn later in this chapter.

 uantum Computer Says No: Error

Q
Correction
All devices break down. The job of error correction is to keep a system
running, even when a data-related crash might be in progress. Error
correction is damage management; instead of data loss and total system
failure, the computation might just slow down a little. This key property
is called fault tolerance. Current-generation computers, especially in the
professional segment, tend to be well catered for in this respect. Since
quantum computers are an emerging technology, the same level of fault
tolerance for these types of devices is still being discovered – and already
with some success. These mostly experimental techniques constitute a
field called quantum error correction (QEC). We’ll now delve a little into
this fascinating, emerging science.
One of the biggest gremlins for quantum computers comes in the form
of decoherence. Basically this refers to the scenario in which quantum
effects, such as superposition and entanglement, are compromised by
intrusions by outside forces. A quantum-based system will invariably
experience some entanglement between qubits and their surroundings. To
a degree, qubits will undergo unwanted phase variance making accurate
calculations more challenging or impossible. Reducing decoherence is
one of the key issues addressed by emerging quantum error correction. So
far, technologies like high magnetic fields have been successfully used to
counter decoherence. Magnets to the rescue!

212
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

The much-researched field of error correction in the realm of

classical bits often relies on redundancy, that is, making multiple copies
of information. Technology called error correction code (ECC), found in
many devices and professional computer components, makes great use
of redundancy. In the nonclassical domain, the property of entanglement
can be used in place of copying quantum information.
Now, another class of concepts you should be aware of are the no-­
go theorems. These represent events in physics which are not deemed
possible, as far as we currently know. There are several of these theorems
in quantum physics and they can be summed up as follows:

• The no-cloning theorem was discovered by physicist

James Park in 1970. It states that it’s simply not possible
to duplicate an arbitrary unknown quantum state.

• The no-deleting theorem is a time-reversed companion

to the previous theorem. It states that when presented
with two identical quantum states, you cannot delete
one of them. Again, this is a phenomenon not known in
classical computing, where copying and deleting binary
data is as trivial as it gets. Physicists Arun K. Pati and
Samuel L. Braunstein proved the no-deleting theorem.
• The no-teleportation theorem states that arbitrary
quantum states can’t (a) be converted into classical bits
and (b) re-created using classical bits. This theorem is
named after the “teleportation” of quantum states into
classical binary data; it has very little to do with quantum
teleportation, which is a separate topic altogether.

• The no-communication theorem is another no-go

theorem which states that when measuring quantum
states, no sharing of information using classical bits can
occur between different observers of these events.

213
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

A theorem is a non-self-evident mathematical statement that has

been proven to be true. This concept is not synonymous with a
theory, which refers to a set of ideas used to explain a phenomenon.
You do not need actual proof to devise a theory, but it’s mandatory
in the case of theorems. A solid theory, however, does need ample
amounts of supporting evidence.

In the light of all these no-go theorems, there are a variety of issues
in quantum error correction. Copying data, for one, is not an option.
However, quantum data can be spread between groups of qubits.
A promising approach in mitigating the issue is to be found in logical qubits.
These are basically collections of qubits serving as a single unit. This
provides a more robust and safeguarded level of processing data in a
quantum computer.
The previously discussed ECC uses the implementation of repetition
code rather extensively. Basically the technique entails resending data over
a channel until intact data makes it to the intended receiver. Classical ECC
repetition code doesn’t work with qubits, due to the no-cloning theorem.
However, quantum computers can sidestep this limitation with several
unique approaches and enjoy a reasonable level of fault tolerance.
One of the mightiest ways to provide sturdy quantum error correction
is known as Shor Code named after professor of applied mathematics
Peter Shor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A Shor Code circuit
takes one logical qubit consisting of nine actual qubits. The approach can
correct any arbitrary errors occurring in a single qubit.
As mighty as the Shor Code is, there are other types of error-correcting
approaches in the quantum realm. Canadian physicist Raymond
Laflamme and his team developed a highly optimized code in which
an initial quantum state is processed with four extra qubits in state |0⟩,
therefore only requiring a total of five qubit units. The method is known as
Perfect Quantum Error Correcting Code (Laflamme et al. 1996).

214
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Four Approaches to Quantum Computing

We’ll now go into detail about some of the general approaches to quantum
computing. There is no single “correct” or mainstream approach yet as this
technology is still in a state of growth.

I. Quantum Gate Array (Quantum Circuit)

A quantum gate is a basic quantum circuit operating with a small number
of qubits. A sequence of these gates constitutes an approach called a
quantum gate array. This is often also referred to as a quantum circuit.
A quantum gate array uses several attributes of quantum mechanics,
such as superposition and entanglement, to reach a level of impressive
computational processing power. While being more effective, the approach
of quantum gate arrays was mostly designed to imitate the logic gates used
in classical computing (Delgado, 2017).
There is one major difference between classical- and quantum-based
gates; the latter offer a great degree of reversibility. After bits are done
passing through arrays of classical logic gates, they often lose their original
form for good, usually turning into heat energy. In the quantum realm,
thanks to the wonders of entanglement, you are likely to be able to reverse
the operations and restore things to their original states. Next, we’ll explore
some of the most common logical operators found in quantum circuits.
See Table 10-2 for a rundown.

215
 Table 10-2. Some common quantum logic gates, their symbols, and matrix representations.

216
Imaginary units (donated with i) form some of these matrices, which are known as complex
matrices.
Chapter 10

Gate Circuit Symbol(s) Matrix Representation

Pauli-X X = (0 1 1 0 )
Pauli-Y Y = (0 − i i 0 )

Pauli-Z Z = (1 0 0 − 1 )

1
Hadamard H= (111 - 1 )
2

Swap SWAP = (1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 )
Quantum Information Science 101

æ 1 1 1 1 ö
√Swap SWAP = ç 10 0 0 0 (1 + i ) (1 - i ) 0 0 (1 - i ) (1 + i ) 0 0 0 0 1 ÷
è 2 2 2 2 ø
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Universal Quantum Gates

A set of quantum-based gates to which any more complicated operations
can be reduced to constitutes the category of universal quantum gates.
While quantum computing offers in theory an infinite set of gates to work
with, all known quantum operations can be approximated by a sequence
of gates from a finite set. The controlled NOT (CNOT) gate is a universal
quantum gate, to name just one.

Universal logic gates aren’t naturally only found in the world of

quantum mechanics. Some are based in classical computing, while
others work with both classical binary data and qubits.

The Fredkin gate (CSWAP), named after computer scientist

Edward Fredkin, is a universal gate used in both classical and quantum
computing. We’ll discuss this type of logic gate in more detail later in
the chapter.
Now, all quantum gates are reversible, but this goes for only some in
the classical binary world. In classical computing, NAND, NOR, and the
Toffoli gate (CCNOT) represent often-used universal logic gates.
The Toffoli gate is in fact a reversible gate which means that any
reversible logic gate can be created with this type of construct. By
implementing a Toffoli gate in an environment with logic gates specific
to the quantum realm, this gate can also work as a universal quantum
gate.

217
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Unitary and Permutation Matrices

A unitary matrix is basically a square matrix with a conjugate transpose
which is also its inverse. This transpose is done by simply flipping a matrix
on its head and then discovering its complex conjugate. Now, a complex
conjugate of a number is a value with an equal real part and imaginary
part, the same magnitude, but it has the opposite sign. For example, the
complex conjugate of A+iB is A-iB.
A unitary matrix with its rows and columns consisting of all zeros and a
single one is called a permutation matrix (P). In other words, each of these
rows and columns must have a total value of one. In quantum physics
single-qubit logical gates, such as the Pauli gates, discussed soon, can be
represented by a simple 2 x 2 matrix.
Later in the chapter we’ll come across several of these permutation
matrices as quantum logic gates represent this type of mathematical
object; stay tuned!

All Things Eigen

When studying fields related to quantum mechanics, you will undoubtedly
come across a plethora of concepts will the prefix of eigen. We’ll now cover
the basics of what these terms actually refer to.
Any set of data points can be deconstructed into eigenvalues, which
have a corresponding eigenvector. An eigenvector is basically a vector
whose direction remains unchanged after a linear transformation.
Now, an eigenvalue generally tells us the amount of variance a
dataset has when traversing on an eigenvector. In a geometrical
context, an eigenvector points in a direction in which it is resized by
a transformation; the associated eigenvalue provides the factor with
which the vector is stretched by. See Figure 10-1 for a simple visual
demonstration of this.

218
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

As a refresher, a linear transformation is a function from a vector

space into another vector space in which both spaces share the
underlying linear structure. The process is also called linear mapping.
A vector space is a collection of vectors, added together and often
multiplied (i.e., scaled) by numbers known as scalars.

Figure 10-1. A visual demonstration of an eigenvector. The vector

directions remain the same after transformation

Eigenvectors and eigenvalues have several important applications in

computing in general, including facial recognition and many other types
of (semi-)automized analysis. Several search engines, including Google,
use eigenvalues and eigenvectors to provide search results as accurately as
possible.
An eigenstate of some operator is a quantum state which, upon
measurement, will yield a result; it basically refers to the previously
discussed phenomenon of superposition.

219
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Finally, there’s the eigenfunction. This refers to a set of independent

functions used to provide a solution to a differential equation (basically,
these types of equations are there to help us understand how things
change). In quantum mechanics, one of the most important partial
differential equations is Schrödinger’s equation, which describes wave
functions, that is, quantum states. You might remember the name from
the previous chapter. With his equation, Schrödinger combined classical
mechanics with quantum-based physics to explain the particle/wave
duality found in the sub-atomic realm.

Oh, and, in case you’re wondering, eigen comes from German and
roughly translated means proper.

Pauli Gates
An important category of logical operators in the quantum world are
known as the Pauli gates, named after the Austrian theoretical physicist
Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958). You might remember the Bloch sphere
representation of qubits we discussed in the previous chapters; Pauli gates
rotate a qubit in its three axes of x, y, and z.
These operators are simply called Pauli-X, Pauli-Y, and Pauli-Z. Of
these, the Pauli-X gate is the quantum equivalent of the classical NOT
operator: it reverses the (spin-)state of a particle switching spin-up to spin-­
down or vice versa.

The Hadamard Gate

A quantum logic gate which takes a qubit’s definite state (i.e., 0 or 1) and
returns it back to superposition is known as the Hadamard gate, named
after French mathematician Jacques Hadamard (1865–1963).

220
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

The Swap Gates

As its name suggests, the swap gate simply switches two qubits around
a logical circuit. This gate is often stylized in all capitals, that is, ”SWAP”.
Another type of swap gate, the square root of swap gate, only performs
its operations half-way. Any multiple-qubit quantum gates can be
constructed by combining the square root of swap with single-qubit
gates.
Figure 10-2 shows the layout of a simple quantum circuit. The top state
fed into the system is a zero. It is input into a Hadamard gate, throwing the
value into superposition (the 50/50 state). The next state is again a zero;
however, it swaps position with the first state. The last line shows again
a value of zero, this time entering a Pauli-X gate (i.e., a quantum NOT
operator) transforming it into a definite one/On.

Figure 10-2. A simple quantum circuit demonstrating the

Hadamard, Pauli-X, and SWAP gates

221
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Toffoli and Fredkin Gates

A special mention belongs to the Toffoli gate which, like we discussed,
serves as a reversible universal gate. We’ll now go into more detail on this
magnificent bit manipulator. Also described as the controlled-controlled-­
not (CCNOT) gate, this gate was invented by professor Tommaso Toffoli in
1980. A Toffoli gate was successfully first implemented in practice in 2009
at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Now, the Toffoli has 3-bit inputs and outputs; if the first two bits are
both set to 1, it inverts the third bit; otherwise, all bits stay the same. In
its quantum version, five two-qubit quantum gates are required to run
a Toffoli gate. A quantum-based Toffoli gate is essentially a quantum/
reversible version of the classical AND gate (see Table 10-3).

Table 10-3. The Toffoli and Fredkin gate circuit symbols and their
matrix representations
Gate Circuit Symbol(s) Matrix Representation

Toffoli

CCNOT =

Fredkin

CSWAP =

222
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

The Toffoli gate plays an important role in quantum error correcting;

this makes it also important in quantum state initialization, manipulation,
and measurement. For these reasons the Toffoli gate has been researched
rather thoroughly (Shi 2018).
As discussed previously in the chapter, a Fredkin gate is another type of
universal logic gate. Often also referred to as the CSWAP gate, it consists of
three inputs and outputs. A Fredkin gate swaps the second and third bits
only, as long as the first one holds the value of one (1). CSWAP stands for
controlled swap.
In 2016 researchers from the University of Queensland and the Griffith
University completed a quantum Fredkin gate using entangled photons
(i.e., light particles) to swap qubits. This type of Fredkin gate was a major
step in facilitating quantum computing as it allows the building of large
quantum circuits consisting of only a few types of logic gates (Patel, Ho,
Ferreytol et al. 2016).

II. The Topological Quantum Computer

A quantum system using two-dimensional quasiparticles known as anyons
is called a topological quantum computer.
Now, an anyon is a particle found in two-dimensional spaces only with
less restrictions than, say, a boson (as discussed in the previous chapter).
Contrary to what you might think, there are two-dimensional spaces
embedded in our mostly three-dimensional understanding of the world. In
physics these are referred to as membranes or surfaces.
A topological quantum computer uses these two-dimensional anyons
to create braids. Braids are abstract mathematical objects represented as
parallel and/or interconnected lines whose points of origin and end points
are fixed (see Figure 10-3).

223
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

Figure 10-3. Example braid charts

Braids operate in three-dimensional space-time to form logic gates

applicable to quantum information science. A topological quantum
computer, once actually constructed, would offer robust error-correcting
capabilities in the quantum realm. An error-correcting method known as
toric code is an inherent part of any topological computer.

III. The Adiabatic Quantum Computer (AQC)

The adiabatic theorem is an important concept in quantum physics. It
states that a quantum system gradually subjected to external forces adapts
to them, where as a sudden exertion of external forces tends to keep the
quantum probabilities intact. The phenomenon was first described by
physicists Max Born and Vladimir Fock in 1928.

A Hamiltonian (H) in quantum physics is an operator used to

represent the total amount of energy in a system. This function
was named after William R. Hamilton (1805–1865), an Irish
mathematician who successfully reformulated Newtonian mechanics
through his work.

224
 Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

The adiabatic approach uses time-dependent smoothly interpolating

Hamiltonians. If this Hamiltonian oscillates slowly enough, the adiabatic
theorem makes sure that a quantum measurement with this type of system
will be accurate.
It has been postulated that an adiabatic quantum computer would
offer the greatest degree of quantum error correction for the time being;
such a system is likely to be highly resistant against quantum decoherence,
for one (Childs, Farhi, Preskill 2001).

IV. One-Way Quantum Computer

A one-way quantum computer uses the phenomenon of quantum
entanglement (familiar from Chapter 9) in the form of cluster states; these
are groups of highly entangled qubits. This approach gets its name from
the fact that each cluster state is destroyed upon measurement. One-way
quantum computers can utilize quantum logic gates in the preparation of
each cluster state (Raussendorf, Briegel 2001).
One-way quantum computers are in fact nonreversible in their
calculations. The order and choices of measurements define the computed
algorithm to be used (Nature 2005). Any practical implementations of a
one-way quantum computer must also implement a high degree of fault
tolerance as quantum noise and decoherence are to be expected.

I n Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• What logic gates are and how they relate to quantum

computers

• The main no-go theorems of quantum computing

when it comes to data duplication and deletion

225
Chapter 10 Quantum Information Science 101

• What quantum error correction (QEC) refers to

• The four main approaches of quantum computing

• The most common logical operators in classical and

quantum computing

In the next chapter we’ll enter the fray of quantum encryption in full
force. And armed with all of this new knowledge, it’ll indubitably turn out
to be a winning fight for you, dear reader.

R
 eferences
Perfect Quantum Error Correcting Code. Raymond Laflamme, Cesar
Miquel, Juan Pablo Paz, and Wojciech Hubert Zurek. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77,
198 (1996).
F. Delgado 2017 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 839 012014
Shi, Xiao-Feng. “Deutsch, Toffoli, and Cnot Gates via Rydberg Blockade
of Neutral Atoms.” Physical Review Applied 9.5 (2018).
Patel, Ho, Ferreytol et al. Science Advances, 2016: Vol. 2, no. 3, e1501531.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501531 https://advances.sciencemag.org/
content/2/3/e1501531
Childs, Farhi, Preskill 2001. Robustness of adiabatic quantum
computation. Physical Review A 65.1
Raussendorf, Briegel 2001. A One-Way Quantum Computer. Phys. Rev.
Lett. 86, 5188
Nature volume 434, pages 169–176 (2005)

226
CHAPTER 11

Quantum
Cryptography
In this chapter we’ll explore more of some of the most essential
components of quantum-based cryptography, including the grandparent
of quantum key distribution protocols, the formidable BB84. You’ll see
some familiar concepts and names, but you will probably also encounter
several new ideas.

On Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)

We’ll now probe into some of the most important concepts related to
quantum cryptography, including quantum key distribution (QKD). Do
note that QKD is not the same as quantum encryption; it is instead a very
effective auxiliary technique for securing keys/passwords. Current
implementations of QKD are to be used in tandem with well-established
classical algorithms, such as the AES.
A number of transmission protocols exist for QKD. We’ll next discuss
some of these protocols in detail.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 227

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_11
Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

L et’s Go with Light

Quantum communications can be implemented using several varieties
of quantum particles, including ions, atoms, and light (i.e., photons). Out
of these, unit light tends to interact with matter to the smallest degree as
photons are massless. This makes photons the optimal choice of transfer
unit when it comes to tackling the issue of decoherence (as discussed in
Chapter 10). Light, however, does sometimes disperse over time; a few of
those important photons may never arrive at their intended destination.
How these losses affect quantum communications is largely dependent on
which protocol is being used (Scarani et al. 2009).

B
 B84
Developed all the way back in 1984 by Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard,
the BB84 was the first cryptographic protocol that allowed legitimate
parties to detect eavesdropping during message transmission. It uses
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which as you might remember from
Chapter 9 states that quantum-based data can’t be measured without
disturbing it.
The information sent using BB84 is encoded in the polarization of photons.
Polarization refers to the geometrical orientation of the oscillations in (light)
waves; the property is expressed in degrees, for example, 90° (see Figure 11-1).
Optical fiber is a typical carrier medium for this approach.

228
 Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

Figure 11-1. The oscillation patterns of photons can be altered using

polarizer devices

Polarization can be performed either on a rectilinear or diagonal basis

in BB84 (see Figure 11-2). The sender side chooses which basis/approach
to use for each bit and informs the receiver; this stage is called key sifting.
Often a nonsecure conventional channel of communication is used with
the BB84 for negotiation and sifting purposes.

Figure 11-2. Bits can be encoded in the polarization states of a

photon in the BB84 protocol. The black arrows denote the rectilinear
basis

229
Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

Now, let’s do some key sifting and simulate a small quantum

transmission between two parties, Adramicia-Alphonsine and
Biniyaamzawed. Whenever these two share bases and measurements, they
form parts of the secret key (see Table 11-1).

Table 11-1. A small sifted key. The plus sign denotes a rectilinear
basis, while X refers to the diagonal one
Adramicia-Alphonsine’s bit 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1
Adramicia-Alphonsine’s basis + X + X X + X +
Adramicia-Alphonsine’s 90° 45° 0° 135° 45° 90° 45° 0°
polarization
Biniyaamzawed’s basis + X + X + X + +
Biniyaamzawed’s measurement 90° 45° 90° 135° 90° 45° 0° 0°
Shared bits 1 1 0 1
(i.e., the secret password/key)

Key sifting is often performed on a more or less open channel such

as the Internet. Although it might sound risky, malicious actors cannot
often use sifting-related communications to gain information on any
keys/passwords transmitted using QKD.

The no-cloning theorem (see Chapter 10) guarantees information can’t

be duplicated in this realm. Also, any eavesdropping on channels using the
BB84 protocol will result in an increased rate of quantum errors; this will
let the legitimate parties know they are being spied upon.

230
 Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

B92
Developed by Charles Bennett of BB84 fame, the B92 is basically an
optimized version of his previous protocol. Instead of four polarized states,
the B92 offers just two (Ouchao, Jakimi 2018). Transmission of the basis
(i.e., rectilinear or diagonal) used in the sifting stage is also not needed
in B92. While easier to implement than the BB84, the newer protocol is
thought to be less secure.

The Six-State Protocol (SSP)

Based on BB84, the six-state protocol operates on six states of polarization
(on three orthogonal bases), instead of the four found in BB84 (see
Figure 11-3). Eavesdropping on an implementation of the SSP produces
a high rate of error, making unmasking malicious actors very effective.
Although this approach is among the most secure protocols, it carries with
it additional risks of data loss.

Figure 11-3. The three bases and six states of polarization of the SSP
represented with a Bloch sphere

231
Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

The Ekert Protocol (E91)

The Ekert protocol uses quantum entanglement with a central source
between two parties to transmit messages simultaneously; a currently
known practical source could be a satellite in orbit. The photons used in
the protocol are entangled and assigned with randomized polarization.
The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox (EPR paradox) is a thought
experiment devised in 1935 basically stating that quantum mechanics
were in fact considered an incomplete paradigm. The quantum properties
of entanglement and superposition in particular were thought to be in
conflict with classical physics. The Ekert protocol actually provides a
functional framework for putting the theoretical physics outlined in the
EPR paradox into practice (Ilic 2007).

Continuous-Variable (CV) Protocols

The previously introduced protocols have been discrete variable in
nature in which information is carried by single, or entangled, photons.
A continuous-variable (CV) protocol is a different approach in which
amplitudes, instead of individual photons, are measured. The photon
counter units in discrete-variable protocols slow down the proceedings
a tad and are not needed with continuous-variable protocols. Although
generally faster during operation, CV protocols tend to produce more
errors (Scarani et al. 2009).

Shor’s (Factoring) Algorithm

Some encryption schemes previously thought of as impenetrable are
meeting their matches. One such scenario unfolded when Peter Shor’s
factoring algorithm emerged in 1994, which is bad news for public-key
cryptographic approaches such as the RSA. Shor’s algorithm was devised
to discover prime factors of arbitrary numbers.

232
 Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

In practice, Shor’s algorithm consists of two phases; the first of which

may be performed on a classical computer. In 2001 IBM built a seven-qubit
quantum computer and with it successfully demonstrated the second part
of Shor’s algorithm.
Now, are algorithms like the RSA in peril? Not really. For its 2048-bit
variety at least, we would need a quantum computer of several hundred
qubits to make the wait palatable. In addition, even if we managed to
create such a computer, the issue of decoherence remains; as discussed in
the previous chapter, qubits eventually lose their luster with their quantum
properties. And we can forget about a classical supercomputer working on
cracking the RSA with its several trillion year time frame.

Quantum Coin Flipping

Sometimes you can’t be sure that the receiving end of quantum
communications is the intended one. Quantum coin flipping is a protocol
for two parties who do not trust each other. The technique is being
researched for secure authentication (i.e., fingerprinting) purposes as
some stages in a typical QKD process involve nonsecure channels of
communication. An approach where quantum coin flipping is executed
after QKD is performed has been proposed; this would thwart most
attempts at a man-in-the-middle attack (Rass et al. 2009).

In Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• Which established protocols exist for quantum key

distribution (QKD), in particular the BB84 and the
basics of its workings

233
Chapter 11 Quantum Cryptography

• What key sifting means

• The significance of Shor’s algorithm and quantum coin

flipping

In the next chapter we’ll delve much deeper into the fascinating theme
of quantum-based cryptography. There are still many concepts left to
unearth in quantum key distribution alone, for one.

References
B. Ouchao, A. Jakimi. International Journal of Advanced Engineering,
Management and Science, June 2018. Performance Evaluation of Secure
Key Distribution Based on the B92 Protocol.
Scarani, Bechmann-Pasquinucci et al. Rev.Mod.Phys. 81, 2009. The
Security of Practical Quantum Key Distribution.
Ilic, Nikolina J. Phy 334, 2007. The Ekert Protocol.
S. Rass, P. Schartner, M. Greiler. 2009 IEEE International Conference on
Communications. Quantum Coin-Flipping-Based Authentication.

234
CHAPTER 12

Quantum Key
Distribution Under
Attack
In this chapter we’ll continue on the emerging science of quantum
key distribution (QKD). This is a key technology and will undoubtedly
play a big part in many a person’s life in the near future. The concepts
introduced in the last chapter will be greatly expanded upon, including the
hardware side of things. But first, we’ll cover various types of QKD-focused
cryptographic attacks as these unfortunately will be an issue.

B
 reaking QKD
Although representative of the next generation of computing, QKD is
not impervious to malicious activities. Some of these attack vectors
will resemble those found in classical computing. However, some
are only implementable in the world of quantum cryptography. The
attacks described next mostly target the BB84 protocol and its many
derivatives.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 235

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_12
Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

Photon Number Splitting (PNS)

Using the BB84 protocol, Alice would be ideally sending Bob a single
photon at a time. However, due to the limitations of creating single
photons under most circumstances, sometimes more than one photon is
sent during transmission with BB84. This paves the way for photon number
splitting. In this attack, Eve the eavesdropper can intercept some photons
while letting others reach their intended recipient that is, Bob. Due to
negligible rates of quantum errors in this attack vector (i.e., photon loss),
both legitimate parties will assume to be in transmission with each other
only. This leads to a scenario in which Eve knows exactly what Alice is
trying to communicate to Bob while remaining completely invisible herself
(Zhao, 2018).
A family of protocols free of key sifting has been proposed to provide
resistance to photon number splitting (Grazioso & Grosshans 2013). The
decoy state protocol, too, offers protection against this variety of attack.

The decoy state protocol uses several settings of intensity in the

transmitter side. Only one of these settings contains valuable
information; the rest are decoys. Only after each transmission is
the intended intensity setting revealed. This approach offers good
protection against the photon number-splitting attack. The decoy
state protocol has been confirmed to work over distances of at least
100 kilometers.

236
 Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

Denial of Service
Instead of flooding a server with requests as is the case in a classical
denial-of-service (DoS) attack, in quantum-based settings malicious
actors can simply cut fiber optic cords. In the case of unsealed optical
quantum transmission devices, blocking the line of sight between these
units also does the trick. A quantum DoS is there primarily to disrupt any
proceedings and not to gather intelligence.

Trojan Horse
Its name notwithstanding, the Trojan horse attack in a quantum context
shares very little with its classical counterpart. Instead of a malicious
software package, the quantum-based Trojan horse uses the approach of
shining a bright beam of light into the quantum channel and examining
its back reflections. With only a handful of reflected photons, an
eavesdropper can deduce the basis choice of one of the legitimate parties
(Nitin et al. 2014).

A Trojan horse attack in the context of QKDs is also known as a large

pulse attack.

Intercept and Resend (IR)

The intercept and resend attack is exactly what it sounds like. An
eavesdropper called Eve intercepts photons Alice intends to reach Bob. Eve
replaces these photons with another set which she has already measured.
Statistically speaking Eve is successful in getting the basis right 50% of the
time. In turn Bob is also right 50% in deducing Eve’s basis. This results in a
detectable error rate of 25% (50% of 50% equals 25%).

237
Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

A variation of this attack known as the Intercept and Resend with Faked
States (IRFS) does not focus on guessing any original basis states. Instead
Eve’s emphasis is on producing pulses of light detectable by Bob. This
provides a cover for eavesdropping; Alice and Bob think they are operating
with unaltered quantum states, unaware of Eve’s influence on the
proceedings. This can reveal the full secret key/password without raising
alarm via spikes in the quantum error rate (Lizama-Pérez et al. 2016).

Thermal Blinding Attack

Sometimes bright light is all it takes to compromise a QKD-based system.
A type of attack known as thermal blinding uses continuous-wave
illumination and short, bright trigger pulses to manipulate voltages in a
quantum circuit. This can reveal the full key/password without raising the
qubit error rate, which would under most circumstances raise an alarm. As
of 2020, at least the Clavis2 QKD system has been compromised using this
type of attack vector.
Unlike photon counters, homodyne sensors may be able to ward
off thermal blinding attacks with a considerable rate of success.
The technology was also fundamental in demonstrating quantum
entanglement.

M
 an in the Middle
A common type of attack in the classical world, man in the middle is also
a possibility during any unauthenticated use of QKD. In particular, the
calibration phase when establishing a QKD connection may be exposed
to this type of attack. By installing a malicious precondition into the
signal exchange, an eavesdropper may receive full details on the final key
(see Figure 12-1). The BB84 protocol and its derivatives in particular are
vulnerable to this attack (Fei & Meng, et al., 2018).

238
 Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

Figure 12-1. MITM during quantum key distribution. Alice sends

calibration signals to Bob only to have them intercepted by Eve, who
in turn sends her faked signals to Bob. The T denotes a single cycle in
a single pulse of photons

Before quantum key distribution can be initiated, a quantum channel

must be established with single-photon detectors. These detectors will
be calibrated using a process known as line length measurement (LLM).
During a typical LLM, Alice sends calibration signals to the detectors at
Bob’s disposal. This process includes gauging the channel length and
the relative delay between the arrival timing of the pulses. The activation
timing of each detector is scanned electronically to discover the timing
when the count rates are at maximum (Fei & Meng, et al., 2018).
The receiver, Bob, has photon detectors in place, but he’s not aware
of Eve the eavesdropper who is actually sending him faked signals.
Eve creates discrepancies between the activation timing of the various
detectors by replacing the calibration signals with phony ones. These are
to contain more than one pulse in each cycle as opposed to the signals sent
by Alice, which have one pulse per cycle. The arrival timings of responding
signals are denoted as t0 and t1 in Figure 12-1. Eve wants to know the
activation timing for each detector (i.e., t0 or t1). This can be solved by a
time-shift attack (TSA) in the beginning of the QKD process during which
Eve chooses the arrival timing of signals between t0 and t1 at random (Fei
& Meng, et al., 2018).

239
Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

Now, if this interception of the LLM is successful, Eve will be in

complete control over the quantum channel in question while Bob will
remain blissfully unaware; this approach constitutes the man-in-the-­
middle attack in the quantum realm.

The Hardware of QKD

Having looked into potential attack vectors, let’s next take a peek at the
hardware components a QKD system includes running on the BB84
protocol. The system we are about to explore was based on the work by
researchers at Toshiba Corporate Research Center, Toshiba Research Europe
Ltd, and the Quantum ICT Laboratory in Japan.
This system was successfully implemented on a 45-kilometer stretch
of a metropolitan telecom network in Tokyo. The QKD transmissions were
carried over fiber optic cables (Dixon & Dynes et al., 2017).

Component Breakdown
Next, we’ll go through the main components of the Tokyo QKD system;
Figures 12-2 and 12-3 show the basic parts of the transmitter and receiver
devices the network utilized. These will be discussed in detail.

Figure 12-2. A layout for a secure QKD transmitter device

240
 Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

Figure 12-3. A layout for a secure QKD receiver device

The presented design uses Mach–Zehnder interferometer. This refers

to the technology used to examine relative phase shift variations
between two beams derived by splitting light from a single source.
Both the transmitter and the receiver devices in the design operate
on these principles and contain the necessary hardware to do so.

Field Programmable Array Gate (FPGA)

Found in numerous types of devices, field programmable array gates
(FPGAs) are semiconductor circuits consisting of a matrix of logic blocks.
These are highly configurable units, unlike application-specific integrated
circuits (ASIC) which are designed for a specific, usually fixed purpose (e.g.,
CPUs in classical computers). An FPGA is reprogrammable should the need
to implement new tasks and/or features arise; it’s the perfect prototyping
solution. Like you probably noticed from Figures 12-2 and 12-­3, an FPGA is
a central component to both the receiver and the transmitter device.
In the context of the QKD system presented in this chapter, the FPGAs
run at a 1 Gigahertz transmission rate.

241
Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

 ptical Attenuator, Isolator, and Narrow

O
Band Pass Filter
The optical attenuator (A), isolator (I), and narrow band pass filter (F)
components work together to reduce the amount of reflected light (see
Figure 12-2). In a QKD setting they are responsible for attenuating the
photon pulse levels so that information leakage isn’t an issue in the context
of a quantum Trojan horse attack.

L aser Diode, Intensity Modulator, and Phase

Modulator
The laser diode (LD) component produces photon pulses, that is, the
main units of information in a QKD system (see Figure 12-2). An intensity
modulator (IM) provides security against photon-splitting attacks by
adding decoy states into the stream.
A phase modulator (PM) component in this QKD solution can encode
four discrete phase values onto the photon pulse; a PM on the receiver’s
device is then used to decrypt these values.

Beam Splitter and Polarizing Beam Splitter

Beam splitters (BS) are used by the receiver to extract the polarization
data of each photon particle. A polarizing beam splitter (BMS) ensures
that photons travel through opposite paths in the interferometer pair and
always arrive at the final beam splitter.

242
 Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

M
 onitoring Detector
Implementing a monitoring detector (MD) into a receiver’s device helps
to ward off thermal blinding attacks. This optical power monitor receives
around 1% of the device’s input. This is enough to detect any suspicious
influx of heat energy typical in thermal blinding.

D
 elay Line
An optical delay line (DL) is a component which protects against Trojan
horse attacks directed at the phase modulator (PM). The delay line makes
it impossible for a malicious actor to detect any reflected light from the
phase modulator unit before a modulated photon has been detected by
Bob/the receiver.

Electronic Polarization Controller

An electronic polarization controller (EPC) in a receiver device
functions to mitigate environmental disturbances during QKD
operation (see Figure 12-3). An EPC is placed before the receiver’s
interferometer to compensate for the constant polarization rotations in
the transmission fiber.

Fiber Length Stretcher

The path lengths of the fiber optic based interferometers in the transmitter
and receiver are potentially influenced by fluctuations in temperature.
To compensate for this, an electrically driven fiber length stretcher (FS) is
placed in the receiver’s interferometer.

243
Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

 valanche Photodiodes and

A
Self-­Differencing Circuits
The so-called avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are used for photon
detection on Alice’s/the receiver’s device. A diode is simply a device
which converts light into electricity. An APD is a type of diode with signal-­
amplifying properties. The APDs in the QKD system presented were cooled
to -30° Celsius for optimal performance.
Also a part of the presented system were self-differencing circuits
(SD) which allow the avalanche photodiodes to work effectively in the
so-called Geiger-mode, without excessive levels of signal noise. In this
mode a device’s output pulses create “on/off” trigger events. Avalanche
photodiodes operating in Geiger-mode are some of the most optimal
components available today for detecting single photons.

T he Externals
All of this advanced technology is housed under a rather minimalistic
steel chassis as can be seen from Figure 12-4. Both the transmitter and the
receiver devices measure 19”/48 cm in width and 5.25”/13.3 cm in height.

Figure 12-4. A QKD transmitter and receiver1

1
I mage source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434053. Used under
Creative Commons 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/).

244
 Chapter 12 Quantum Key Distribution Under Attack

I n Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• The major cryptographic attacks in the realm of QKD

• Which hardware components a secure QKD system
consists of

In the next chapter we’ll explore other current implementations of

QKD, including SwissQuantum, Tokyo QKD Network, and others.

R
 eferences
Dixon, A. R., Dynes, J. F., Lucamarini M. et al. Quantum key distribution
with hacking countermeasures and long term field trial. 2017. www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434053
Luis Adrian Lizama-Pérez, José Mauricio López, and Eduardo De
Carlos López. 2016. Quantum Key Distribution in the Presence of the
Intercept-Resend with Faked States Attack. Entropy/MDPI 19.
Yusheng Zhao. 2018. Development of Quantum Key Distribution and
Attacks against It. IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1087.
Fabio Grazioso, Frédéric Grosshans. 2013. Photon-Number-Splitting-­
attack resistant Quantum Key Distribution Protocols without sifting.
Physical Review A, American Physical Society.
J. Nitin, E. Anisimova, I. Khan et al. 2014. New Journal of Physics
16. Trojan-horse attacks threaten the security of practical quantum
cryptography.
B. Ouchao, A. Jakimi. International Journal of Advanced Engineering,
Management and Science, June 2018. Performance Evaluation of Secure
Key Distribution Based on the B92 Protocol.
Yang-Yang Fei, Xiang-Dong Meng, Ming Gao, Hong Wang & Zhi Ma.
2018. Quantum man-in-the-middle attack on the calibration process of
quantum key distribution. Scientific Reports volume 8.

245
CHAPTER 13

Implementations
of QKD
Chapter 12 provided a basic overview of the hardware components in a
quantum key distribution (QKD) system. We also explored the Tokyo QKD
Network built to test the threat resilience of QKD. In this chapter we’ll
delve into larger implementations of this technology, exploring the basics
of a total of five major QKD networks.

The DARPA Quantum Network

The honor of being the world’s first quantum network belongs to The
DARPA Quantum Network. Funded by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense, this QKD system was
operational between 2002 and 2007. The DARPA Quantum Network was
built by BBN Technologies collaborating with Harvard University and the
Boston University Photonics Center (BUPC).
DARPA ran on unused fiber optic cable (i.e., dark fiber) beneath
the streets of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The system was
compatible with conventional Internet technology. It consisted of ten
optical nodes, connecting Harvard University with Boston University.

© Robert Ciesla 2020 247

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_13
Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

The DARPA system incorporated several QKD distribution protocols

into a single protocol stack. Privacy was enhanced using universal hashing,
in which an algorithm is chosen at random from a family of hashing
algorithms. This approach contains very few probabilities for collisions
and spans the mathematical domains of integers, vectors, and strings. Key
sifting in DARPA was achieved by either traditional means, such as run-­
length encoding (RLE), or using the SARG04 protocol.
SARG04 by Scarani et al. is a more robust version of the ubiquitous
BB84 protocol offering improved resistance against photon-number-­
splitting attacks. SARG04 works best in scenarios where attenuated laser
pulses are used instead of individual photons.

Run-length encoding (RLE) is the simplest lossless form of data

compression dating back to the late 1960s. Instead of including
repeated sets of data, RLE stores only single sets of these duplicate
repeating bits while recording the amount of times these sets are to
be repeated.

 ecure Communication Based on Quantum

S
Cryptography (SECOQC)
In 2003 a grand European cryptographic project was initiated. The
SECOQC was created to study the practical applications of quantum key
distribution technology in the context of the Q3P protocol. The project’s
participants included 41 organizations from the European Union, Russia,
and Switzerland. We’ll next examine the findings of this rather large team
of experts.
Now, there are two primary types of QKD networking approaches.

248
 Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

1. Quantum channel switching. An end-to-end

quantum channel is used between transmitter and
receiver (e.g., Alice and Bob).

2. Trusted repeater. The keys are transported over

many nodes (i.e., intermediate locations) which are
deemed trustworthy.

Participants in the SECOQC project focused on researching the

implementation of a six-node trusted repeater network (see Figure 13-1).
This came to fruition in Vienna in 2008.

Figure 13-1. The node layout of the SECOQC network

The nodes were all located within Vienna, apart from St Pölten (node 1)
which was hosted by a repeater station on a communication line from Vienna
to Munich, Germany (see Table 13-1).

249
Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

Table 13-1. The SECOQC nodes

Designation Full Name Designation Full Name

STP St Pölten ERD Erdberger Lände

BRT Breitenfurterstraße GUD Gudrunstraße
SIE Siemensstraße FRM Siemens Forum

The research group behind SECOQC identified three main

components for their networking approach:

1. The Q3P communication interface, a quantum

point-to-point protocol which provides a secure
communication primitive between two adjacent
nodes. It utilizes technologies such as QKD-TL and
QKD-­NL.

2. QKD-transport layer (QKD-TL), a layer responsible

for linking the correct applications for quantum
transmission, connection management, and
network congestion control.

3. QKD-network layer (QKD-NL), a layer responsible

for actually delivering quantum data between
nodes, including data route determination.

SECOQC also highlighted some issues with implementing QKD, such

as the poor rates of transmission (1 GiB per month). In addition, although
the SECOQC approach was found to be completely interoperable within
the framework, it’s not transferable to mixed networks (e.g., consisting of
both QKD and conventional TCP/IP).

250
 Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

 uantum Experiments at Space

Q
Scale (QUESS)
QUESS was a joint Austrian–Chinese space mission facilitated by the
Tiangong-2 space laboratory, launched in September 2016. As one
part of its payload, Tiangong-2 included the tools for Space to Earth
quantum key distribution. The equipment allows ground receivers,
potentially separated by thousands of kilometers, to establish secure
quantum channels using entangled photons. A satellite named Micius,
named after an ancient Chinese scientist, had the honor of carrying out
these tasks.
QUESS successfully demonstrated QKD between two observatories
in China with a distance of over 2500 kilometers. The system also
facilitated the first intercontinental secured quantum video call
between China and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum
Information in Austria. The distance between these two locations
spanned over 7500 kilometers. In addition, QUESS tested quantum
teleportation, transmitting the states of sub-atomic particles from the
satellite into a ground station in Tibet.
The main benefit of satellite-based quantum key distribution is in its
greatly reduced issues with entangled particles due to scattering; both
fiber optic cables and ground-based line-of-sight quantum devices suffer
considerably more from this issue. However, QUESS cannot function when
basking in sunlight or without direct line of sight with ground nodes.
China has the ambitious goal of creating a global QKD network using
technology found in Micius satellites by 2030.

251
Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

SwissQuantum
Built to test the long-term performance of a QKD system, Swiss company
ID Quantique built the SwissQuantum QKD network in 2009. The system
ran for two years in the Geneva metropolitan area. SwissQuantum ran
between three nodes: the University of Genova (Unige), CERN, and hepia
(Haute Ecole du Paysage, d’Ingenierie et d’Architecture). Like its DARPA
counterpart, SwissQuantum ran on dark fiber cables.
SwissQuantum used a three-layered approach in implementing its
QKD network.

• Quantum layer. Consisted of point-to-point QKD links

running on commercial QKD devices.

• Key management layer. This layer was responsible for

secret key distribution across the network and between
the other layers.

• Application layer. A layer which offers its users a

graphical user interface for interacting with the QKD
system.

The SwissQuantum system was monitored using three virtual local

area networks (VLAN). A single VLAN was assigned for each of the three
layers. The system was protected by two firewalls; only ID Quantique,
Unige, and hepia had access to the network.
SwissQuantum supported the similar BB84 and SARG protocols, of
which the latter is more resistant against photon-splitting attacks. SARG
is a better protocol for long distances and was thus chosen for use in the
SwissQuantum network. The QKD key sifting was done in three steps: error
correction, privacy amplification, and authentication of the related classical
communications. The privacy amplification phase was implemented using
universal hash functions.

252
 Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

The SwissQuantum network demonstrated that relatively complicated

layered QKD systems can be a realistic and reliable solution. The CERN
node resided in France, while the other two were in Switzerland (see
Table 13-2).

Table 13-2. The links and their properties in SwissQuantum

Name Nodes Fiber Length Optical Loss (dB)

SQ1 CERN-Unige 14.4 km -4.6

SQ2 CERN-hepia 17.1 km -5.3
SQ3 Unige-hepia 3.7 km -2.5

Now, optical loss is a phenomenon which describes photon depletion

over distances. In general, the longer the optical fiber cable, the more QKD-
based data loss is likely to occur. A proposed solution is in quantum repeater
devices, which would amplify the signal at specific points in the network to
mitigate this issue. See Table 13-2 for some measurements of optical loss in
the SwissQuantum network and how it relates to fiber length.

Not only limited to the world of audio, optical loss in fiber optic
sources is denoted in decibels (dB). A decibel is a relative unit of
measurement used in expressing the ratio of one value to another.

Tokyo QKD Network

A collaboration between nine partners, the Tokyo QKD Network ran in
2010 on six nodes. In this project, gigahertz-clocked QKD systems, a QKD
smartphone, a reliable commercial QKD product, and an entanglement
QKD system were to be tested. For one, secure TV conferencing was

253
Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

achieved. Such a tested conferencing implementation incorporated an

automatic communications rerouting system should eavesdropping be
detected (see Figure 13-2).

Figure 13-2. The six-node Tokyo QKD Network configuration. Secure

video communication was demonstrated between Koganei and
Otemachi servers. The dashed line denotes an alternate, 135 km route
for these communications (i.e., through Koganei 2 to Otemachi 2)

Much like SwissQuantum, the Tokyo QKD Network had a three-layer

approach. A quantum layer consists of point-to-point quantum links
with each link generating a secure key using any arbitrary protocol or key
format. Connected QKD devices then deliver the keys onto layer two, the
key management layer.
In this middle layer, a key management agent (KMA) operates as a
trusted node. Each KMA receives the makings of a key and proceeds to
resize and save them. The qubit error rate (QBER) and the key generation
rate are also stored for analysis.
The top, communication layer, handles numerous tasks, such as
secure video conferencing and key transfer to mobile devices. The video
in the system is delivered at a rate of 128 kbps, which provides somewhat
passable fidelity. For comparison, a 720p video stream on a typical
classical network (e.g., YouTube) is usually considered optimal at between
2000 and 4000 kbps, depending on the video protocols in use.

254
 Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

The teams behind Tokyo QKD Network experiments concluded that

while they demonstrated long-term QKD use, the focus in this field in the
near future should be on system miniaturization. Eventually, all critical
levels in the Japanese government are expected to utilize QKD for their
confidential communications.

I n Closing
After finishing this chapter, you’ll have learned the basics of five recent
implementations of QKD networks, specifically DARPA, SECOQC, QUESS,
SwissQuantum, and the Tokyo QKD Network. See Table 13-3 for a rundown.

Table 13-3. Recent implementations of QKD networks at a glance

QKD Network Nodes Longest Node Area(s) of Study
Separation (L)/Total
Network Length (T)
DARPA 10 L: 19 km (BU-BBN) Combining QKD with classical
T: 29 km (Harvard-BU) Internet technology (i.e., TCP/IP)
QUESS 3 L: 7500 km Satellite-based QKD using quantum
T: n/a entanglement and quantum
teleportation over vast distances
SECOQC Vienna 6 L: 85 km (STP-BRT) Trusted QKD repeater technology,
T: 200 km Q3P-protocol development
SwissQuantum 3 L: 17.1 km QKD durability in continuous
(CERN-­hepia) operation
T: 35.2 km
Tokyo QKD 6 L: 135 km (Koganei Absolutely secure video
Network 1 - Otemachi 2) transmission even under QKD
T: 148 km eavesdropping

255
Chapter 13 Implementations of QKD

In the next chapter we’ll examine many other exciting technologies the
very near future holds for quantum-based computing and cryptography.

R
 eferences
Elliott, C. The DARPA Quantum Network. 2004. Retrieved from
arXiv:quant-ph/0412029
Peev, M., Pacher, C., Alleaume, R. et al. The SECOQC quantum key
distribution network in Vienna. New Journal of Physics, Volume 11, 2009.
D. Stucki, M. Legre, F. Buntschu et al. Long term performance of the
SwissQuantum quantum key distribution network in a field environment.
New Journal of Physics, 13 123001, 2011.
Kramer, H. QUESS (Quantum Experiments at Space Scale) / Micius.
Retrieved from: https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/
satellite-missions/q/quess
Sasaki, M., Fujiwara M., Ishizuka H. et al. Field test of quantum
key distribution in the Tokyo QKD Network. 2011. Retrieved from
­https://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3566

256
CHAPTER 14

Post-Quantum
Cryptography
For the last few chapters, we have kept a focus on quantum key
distribution, or QKD. This maturing technology is still going to be relevant
for a long time. What’s going to come with it is known as post-quantum
cryptography, which will be the main topic for this chapter. We’ll explore
an overview of this topic, going through the basics of the most relevant
approaches to encryption schemes in the post-quantum realm.

P
 ost-Quantum Cryptography
To clarify, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is a field of science in
which new quantum-resistant (mostly) public-key algorithmic solutions
are researched for a full variety of devices and scenarios. Quantum
cryptography, on the other hand, often refers to the use of quantum key
distribution (QKD) alongside contemporary encryption techniques, as
explained previously in the book.
Now, many classical cryptographic algorithms rely either on integer
factorization (e.g., RSA) or discrete logarithms (e.g., ElGamal). While
offering robust security within the current computing paradigm, the near
future may not be as bright for these approaches. Algorithms hazardous
to contemporary encryption schemes, like Shor’s algorithm, have been

© Robert Ciesla 2020 257

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2_14
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

discovered after all. As powerful quantum computers are emerging, some

effective defensive measures need to be implemented. The first line of
defense is to simply increase key sizes used in contemporary encryption
algorithms from, say, 128 to 256 bits (and beyond). What follows is the
transition to full-scale encryption which is intrinsically quantum-resistant.
Again, cryptographic schemes in this new era are referred to as post-­
quantum algorithms.
One of the biggest challenges in the near future comes in the form
of integrating quantum resistance into existing devices. The potential
solution of add-on hardware cryptoprocessors is in development by big
business, including Microsoft and Google.
Many of today’s hashing functions are largely considered immune
to quantum-based hacking. However, a technique known as Grover’s
algorithm is potentially able to defeat some of these hash functions.
When computing this algorithm, one is basically testing every input
value simultaneously to see which is the correct one, taking advantage of
quantum superposition in doing so.
Most proposed PQC protocols use an asymmetric approach. There are
several major implementations of PQC being currently researched. We’ll
explore some of them next.

Hash-Based Cryptography
Cryptographic primitives based on the security of hash functions
are generically known as hash-based cryptography. This variety of
cryptography is currently limited to digital signature schemes. The US
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced in 2019
its intention to publish standards for stateful hash-based cryptography
based on Leighton-Micali Signatures (LMS) and eXtended Merkle Signature
Scheme (XMSS). We will look at both of these schemes soon.

258
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

A state in the context of hashing schemes refers to recorded

information, often an input password that is not to be reused. Stateless
signature schemes do not request information/passwords after each
signature is calculated.
• Merkle signature scheme (MSS). Although this
approach dates back to the late 1970s, it’s still
considered to be both computationally fast and
resistant to quantum computers. The Merkle scheme
can be used to sign an arbitrary number of messages
(to the power of two) using one public key. Merkle
trees are created by repeatedly hashing pairs of nodes
until there is only one hash left, which is known as the
Merkle Root (see Figure 14-1).

Figure 14-1. The basic layout of a Merkle tree. Concatenation in

this context refers to the process of combining hex characters. By
modifying information in data nodes A, B, C, or D, the above nodes
are also altered, leading to a different Merkle Root

259
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

This root node becomes a public key; it can be then used to

authenticate all other nodes. Message signing aside, a number of
cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, use the Merkle tree approach for its
quick and efficient data verification capabilities.
• eXtended Merkle signature scheme (XMSS, XMSS
MT). Introduced in 2011 and not surprisingly sharing a
lot with the Merkel signature scheme, XMSS is a more
secure version of the venerable scheme, often producing
smaller signature sizes as well. XMSS MT is a more
powerful, multitree variant of this scheme and can in
theory sign an infinite number of messages; compared
to XMSS, this variant typically creates signatures faster at
the cost of bigger file size (Hülsing & Gazdag).

• Leighton-Micali Signatures (LMS). Taking the Merkle

scheme and improving on it, the basic component
of the full LMS scheme is a one-time (OT) signature
scheme. It consists of OT key generation, signing,
and verifying algorithms. In the full scheme, we then
combine this one-time scheme as a subroutine with a
Merkle tree construction to have the full stateful LMS
signature scheme.

• SPHINCS/SPHINCS+. Introduced in 2015, SPHINCS

is a stateless signature scheme. A minor downside
to SPHINCS is in the rather large signature size of 41
kilobytes. The scheme offers robust security against
quantum computers. SPHINCS+ is an update on this
approach which, for one, addresses the signature size.
Even the highest security implementation of SPHINCS+
results in signatures of 30 kilobytes in size; the scheme
can go as low as eight kilobytes for its lowest security
level (Bernstein & Hopwood et al., 2015).

260
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

Code-Based Cryptography
This branch of quantum-resistant cryptography relies on error correction
codes (ECC). Most basic cryptographic functions like encryption and
signing can be implemented using code theoretic concepts. From a
consumer’s point of view, optimized code-based cryptography can be
exceptionally fast during both data encryption and decryption, making it
ideal for mobile devices with limited battery life (Engelbert, Overbeck, &
Schmidt, 2007).

• The asymmetric McEliece cryptosystem from 1978 was

the first implementation of code-based approach. This
scheme uses a specific error correction code, the binary
Goppa. A Goppa code is based on modular arithmetic,
in which numbers reaching a specific target value
(i.e., the modulus) revert back to zero again. The most
common real-life example of this is the twelve-hour
clock. Such a device is said to use arithmetic modulo
12. The McEliece aside, numerous cryptographic
algorithms, including RSA and AES, leverage modular
arithmetic in various ways (Engelbert, Overbeck, &
Schmidt, 2007).

• As robust as the Goppa codes are, they tend to need

rather large public keys. This facet of the McEliece
scheme might require some further development.
Other, more lightweight codes have been proposed
to replace the trapdoor functions provided by
the Goppa codes, but none have proven to be as
resilient to cryptanalysis (Au, Eubanks-Turner, &
Everson, 2013).

261
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

• The Niederreiter cryptosystem is a more recent take

on the McEliece cryptosystem. Developed in 1986
by Harald Niederreiter, the approach is considered
equal to its predecessor when it comes to the overall
level of security. However, Niederreiter is faster than
the McEliece cryptosystem when encrypting data
(Kapshikar & Mahalanobis, 2020).

Multivariate Cryptography
Multivariate cryptography is a concept referring to asymmetric
cryptographic primitives based on multivariate polynomials. It represents
a very robust take on post-quantum cryptography. However, as most
of this technology hasn’t fully matured yet as of 2020, it’s feasible that
undiscovered attack vectors become an issue.

• Cryptologist Jacques Patarin presented a public-key

cryptosystem called Hidden Field Equations (HFE)
in 1996. This was perhaps the first example of a highly
secure form of multivariate cryptography and it
remains popular today. HFE is built on the difficulty
of the problems of solving a system of quadratic
equations. HFE is based on polynomials over finite
fields of different sizes to mask the connection between
private and public keys.

• Unbalanced oil and vinegar (UOV) is another

signature scheme by Patarin based on his earlier
work. UOV depends on the difficulty of distinguishing
between two types of variables it uses, referred to
as “oil” and “vinegar.” The term unbalanced comes

262
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

from this scheme implementing a differing amount of

the two aforementioned variables. In order to create
and receive signatures with UOV, only a minimal
quadratic equation system is to be solved. This scheme
is considered quantum-resistant. UOV is also highly
implementable in the most basic of hardware devices
as it’s mostly based on multiplication and addition.
The key lengths in this scheme tend to be rather large,
resulting in somewhat hefty key file sizes.

• An earlier version of UOV, known as balanced oil

and vinegar, was broken in 1998, calling for this
updated version (Kipnis & Shamir, 1998).

• Rainbow by Jintai Ding and Dieter Schmidt is a

signature scheme based on UOV. Published in 2005, it
can be described as a multilayer implementation of the
aforementioned approach. While being very speedy,
Rainbow shares the issue of large key and signature
sizes of its predecessor(s), although to a smaller degree
(Ferozpuri & Gaj, 2018).

L attice-Based Cryptography
A lattice is a mathematical concept in group theory referring to repeating
sets of points. Lattices are coordinate vectors in an n-dimensional space
(see Figure 14-2). Perhaps the best real-life example of lattices in nature
comes in the form of crystals. The term n-dimensional space refers to a
vector space with an arbitrary number of vectors.

263
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

Figure 14-2. A two-dimensional lattice (left) next to a three-­

dimensional lattice. The latter is 1 of 14 of the so-called Bravais
lattices, representing one of their primitive types

Lattice-based cryptography is considered extremely robust as it

represents the learning with errors (LWE) concept. In LWE a small,
controlled error is introduced to datasets to make them impossible to
decrypt (at least within a reasonable time frame). This technique is a major
part of machine learning. The LWE problem was introduced in 2005 by
theoretical computer scientist Oded Regev who went on to win the 2018
Gödel Prize.
Decryption in LWE is done by knowing the secret error distribution
which will allow the recipient to receive the actual message. Although
lattice-based cryptosystems are very fast, they need large key sizes. Next,
we’ll review some signature schemes based on the aforementioned
approach.

Lattice problems refer to a class of optimization problems which

are extremely difficult to solve. These are used to create the robust
cryptographic properties lattices have to offer. For one, highly
collision-resistant hash functions can be built based on the difficulty
of finding an approximate shortest vector in a lattice.

264
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

• Bimodal Lattice Signature Scheme (BLISS).

Compared to many other approaches, this scheme
offers smaller signature size by the use of Huffman
encoding, which is a type of lossless compression.
BLISS is also claimed to be computationally effective
and to offer robust protection against cryptographic
attacks (Ducas & Durmus et al., 2013).

• Goldreich–Goldwasser–Halevi (GGH) scheme. The

GGH is a public-key cryptosystem which utilizes the
closest vector problem (CVP). In this scheme both the
public and private keys are representations of the
same lattice. GGH offers good performance due to its
effective leveraging of simple matrix operations.

• GGH signature scheme. Like the other GGH, this

scheme uses the CVP problem for solid security, in this
case for the purposes of digital signatures. Introduced
in 1997, the GGH signature scheme uses an approach
where messages need to be hashed into a mathematical
space spanned by a lattice. The signature for a specific
hash in this space is the closest lattice point. It’s worth
noting the most basic variant of the GGH signature
scheme was demonstrated to be broken (Nguyen, 1999).

• NewHope. This extremely secure key exchange scheme

is based on a computational problem known as Ring
learning with errors (RLWE). This provides exceptional
performance and is simple to implement in software.
However, it’s been postulated that the standard
learning with errors (LWE) approach might actually be
more robust as it’s been studied more thoroughly for
threat resistance over the years (Alkim & Avanzi et. al.,
2020).

265
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

• NTRU is a formerly proprietary cryptographic software

consisting of two components: NTRUencrypt, a robust
encryption solution, and NTRUsign, a signature
scheme. NTRU was created in 1996 by mathematicians
Jeffrey Hoffstein, Jill Pipher, and Joseph H. Silverman.
As of 2017, NTRU has been made available in the
public domain. The system is known to be both very
speedy (being hailed as the fastest lattice-based system
available) and quantum-resistant. A derivative of the
NTRU algorithm, the Stehle-Steinfeld, is not considered
as efficient. Another take on NTRU, NTRU Prime, has
made it into the second round of NIST’s Post-Quantum
Cryptography Standardization project.

Homomorphic Encryption
With homomorphic encryption (HE), decryption is not actually necessary
to access any parts of encrypted datasets. This approach works well for
health and finance sectors as at no point is decryption necessary in the
traditional sense when operating on encrypted information. Critical
cloud-based storage is just one example of a scenario in which (fully)
homomorphic cryptography becomes highly useful. One notable feature
of lattice-based cryptography is known to facilitate fully homomorphic
encryption (FHE), the most robust form of homomorphism, particularly
well. However, homomorphic encryption can be implemented with
numerous public-key algorithms such as ElGamal and some of its
variations (Parmar, Padhar, & Patel et al., 2014).

266
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

The somewhat elderly RSA encryption method, mentioned in the

previous chapters, actually represents partially homomorphic
encryption (PHE).

Now, there are basically three degrees to homomorphism in

cryptography, each with different pros, cons, and usage scenarios. These
are summarized in Table 14-1.

Table 14-1. The three main degrees of homomorphic encryption

Classification Features Potential Usage
Scenarios

Partially Permits either addition or Statistical analysis

homomorphic (PHE) multiplication on encrypted data but
not both, fast computational speed
Somewhat Supports more than a single type Secure databases
homomorphic (SHE) of operation, limits total number of
operations
Fully Arbitrary computation on encrypted Cloud-based storage,
homomorphic (FHE) data, slowest rate of computation electronic voting,
managing highly
classified data

267
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

Homomorphic Algorithms
There are a number of algorithms developed specifically for
homomorphism. We’ll review some of them next.

• Paillier cryptosystem algorithm. Devised by Pascal

Paillier in 1999, this scheme is described as an additive
homomorphic cryptosystem. The Paillier is considered
particularly suitable for the purposes of electronic
voting.

• Gentry-Halevi (GH) encryption scheme. In 2009 Craig

Gentry described a plausible construction for a fully
homomorphic encryption scheme using lattices. This
was the first lattice-based software implementation of
its kind. This technique was enhanced with the input
of computer scientist Shai Halevi. The GH encryption
scheme was made public in 2010.

• The GSW cryptosystem. Created by Craig Gentry, Amit

Sahai, and Brent Waters in 2013, the GSW represents
fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) implemented
with a learning with errors (LWE) approach. In GSW the
often computationally heavy homomorphic addition
and multiplication operations are instead executed
with simpler matrix addition and multiplication.
Interestingly, while many other schemes require
a user’s “evaluation key” to be obtained, the GSW
scheme has no such key (an evaluation key consists
of a chain of encrypted secret keys). Homomorphic
operations can be therefore executed without knowing
any parts of the public key, some minor parameters
notwithstanding (Gentry, Sahai, & Waters, 2013).

268
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

• The GSW cryptosystem has also been described

as rather ubiquitous as it’s seen much use in
homomorphic signature schemes as well (Robshaw &
Katz, 2016).

Bootstrapping in the context of cryptography refers to the process of

minimizing “noise” a fully homomorphic encryption scheme invariably
generates. Although necessary under many schemes, bootstrapping
is a computationally costly procedure. Ways of mitigating its impact
on computational resources include noise reduction to reduce the
frequency of bootstrapping, and ditching the technique altogether,
as suggested by Brakerski and Vaikuntanathan in their 2011 paper
“Fully Homomorphic Encryption without Bootstrapping.”

Video Gaming for Homomorphism

With the rise of 3D gaming and the associated hardware development,
since the 2000s manufacturers like AMD and Nvidia have been churning
out rather powerful video cards. The computing power in a graphics
processing unit (GPU) usually used for generating dazzling vistas and
scenes of simulated murder can be leveraged to provide other tasks as well.
In a 2012, a research project by Wang, Hu, and Chen et al. created
a scenario in which GPU-based acceleration was applied to the fully
homomorphic Gentry–Halevi scheme. It was demonstrated that using a
video card to aid in computation resulted in speedup factors of 7.68 for
encryption, 7.4 for decryption, and 6.59 for recryption. The experiment
utilized an Nvidia Tesla C2050 from 2011, which by today’s standards is
only a modestly powerful card. Clustered modern GPUs offer processing
capabilities greater than an order of magnitude (or several) compared to
their earlier brethren.

269
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

The Tesla range of GPUs was a part of Nvidia’s general-purpose

graphics processing units (GPGPU), which were designed with
computation, not gaming, in mind. In 2020 Nvidia retired the Tesla’s
as the much more powerful Ampere A100 cards took their place.
However, most higher-end gaming cards of recent years can be used
for purely computational purposes as well.

Homomorphism for Coders

Several application programming interfaces (APIs) have emerged over the
past few years. The two best known are the proprietary CUDA (Compute
Unified Device Architecture) by Nvidia and the open source OpenCL (Open
Computing Language). The latter was introduced by Apple in 2009 but is
currently being developed by Khronos Group.
In 2015 Wei Dai and Berk Sunar presented CUDA Homomorphic
Encryption Library (cuHE), a free programming library which takes full
advantage of current-generation Nvidia GPUs in a cryptographic context.
For homomorphic sorting operations alone, cuHE offers a speedup
between 12 and 41 times (Dai & Sunar, 2016).

Standardizing PQC
As you probably know by now, encryption in its many forms is firmly
embedded in our world, from mobile devices to government databases.
A new generation of cryptographic technology must be therefore very
thoroughly evaluated before widespread implementation.

270
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

launched an initiative in 2016 to establish standards for post-quantum
encryption. As of 2020, a number of proposed PQC protocols are being
evaluated for use by the US government; over half of the initial 69
proposals have already been rejected.
In addition, the Open Quantum Safe (OQS) project aims to develop
quantum-resistant cryptography, integrating current PQC schemes into a
single open source programming library called liboqs. As of 2020, liboqs
includes key exchange algorithms like NewHope and NTRU.

Zero-Knowledge Proof in PQC

A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is a technique or protocol in which a party
can prove to another party that they know a secret value without disclosing
any additional information. This guards the password/key from being
put out there. ZKP is a crucial component in blockchains (e.g., digital
currencies), online banking, ID schemes, and numerous other verification
methods. Zero-knowledge protocols work for any variety of multiparty
computation.
Now, there are basically three core qualities to ZKP.
• Completeness. If a statement is true, the verifier
should be completely convinced.

• Soundness. A malicious prover should not be able to

convince the verifier if the statement is false (a small
probability aside).

• Zero-knowledge. A malicious verifier learns nothing

except that the statement is true.

271
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

Protocols implementing zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge require

input from the verifying party. This input is usually provided in the form
of a set of challenges/questions. These responses will convince the verifier
if, and only if, a statement is true. Zero-knowledge proofs were first
formulated by Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, and Charles Rackoff in their
1989 paper “The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof-Systems.”
There is even a type of zero-knowledge proofs in which no interaction
is necessary between the two parties; there are known as non-interactive
zero-knowledge proofs (NIZK). Back in 1988 Blum et al. introduced the
idea that a small random string of bits shared by the prover and the verifier
guarantees computational zero-knowledge without any interaction
between the parties (Blum, Feldman, & Micali, 1988).

Commitment Schemes
Cryptographic primitives known as commitment schemes are often
used in tandem with the approach of zero-knowledge proofs. You can
think of a commitment scheme as firmly locked safe which is shipped
off to the receiver. It can only be opened if/when the sender gives
the combination to the receiver. Once locked, the message cannot be
altered even by the sender.
Commitment scheme operation takes place in two phases. First, in
the commit phase values are chosen. In the following reveal phase, the
value is both revealed and verified. Perhaps the most classic example of a
commitment scheme is known as coin flipping by telephone. For this we’ll
ask our old friends Alice and Bob to demonstrate.

1. Alice commits to a random bit bA (“flips a coin”) and

sends the resulting commitment C to Bob. Think of
C as being a securely locked safe. Alice can’t change
the information in this safe/commitment after
sealing it and shipping it off.

272
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

2. Bob chooses a random bit bB and sends it to Alice.

3. Alice opens the safe C to let Bob see A. Both parties

compute the result using a XOR operator as follows:
b=bA⊕bB.
If either Alice or Bob is honest and chooses an actually random
bit (one or zero, “heads” or “tails”), then the result will also be random
regardless of what the other party picked. Coin flipping by telephone
guarantees to Bob that Alice will pick her sequence of bits at random.
Also, this technique convinces Alice that Bob will remain unaware of the
sequence of bits he flipped to her.

In Closing
After finishing this chapter, you will have learned the following:

• What is meant by post-quantum cryptography (PQC)

• Which main algorithmic approaches for PQC are in

development as of 2020

• The features and varieties of homomorphic encryption

• What zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) and commitment

schemes mean

Now, after finishing this book, you hopefully have a better

understanding of how contemporary encryption works while also having
new tools to absorb more information on this topic in the future. You
also have a basic grasp on some of the fascinating phenomena found in
quantum mechanics and how these are applied in cryptography.
Stay current, stay encrypted. Keep a thirsty mind.

273
Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

R
 eferences
Johannes Buchmann, Erik Dahmen, and Andreas Hulsing. XMSS – A Practical
Forward Secure Signature Scheme based on Minimal Security Assumptions.
2011. Retrieved from: https://eprint.iacr.org/2011/484.pdf
Andreas Hülsing, Stefan-Lukas Gazdag, Denis Butin, and Johannes
Buchmann. Hash-based Signatures: An Outline for a New Standard.
Léo Ducas, Alain Durmus, Tancrède Lepoint, and Vadim
Lyubashevsky. Lattice Signatures and Bimodal Gaussians. 2013.
Daniel J. Bernstein, Daira Hopwood, Andreas Hülsing, Tanja Lange
et al. SPHINCS: practical stateless hash-based signatures. Eurocrypt 2015.
Retrieved from: https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/795.pdf
P. Q. Nguyen. Cryptanalysis of the Goldreich-Goldwasser-Halevi
cryptosystem from Crypto ’97. In Proc. of Crypto ’99, volume 1666 of
LNCS. IACR, Springer-Verlag, 1999.
Kipnis A., Shamir A. (1998) Cryptanalysis of the oil and vinegar
signature scheme. In: Krawczyk H. (eds) Advances in Cryptology —
CRYPTO ’98. CRYPTO 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1462.
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Engelbert, Overbeck, & Schmidt. A Summary of McEliece-Type
Cryptosystems and their Security. Journal of Mathematical Cryptology
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2007.
Kapshikar, Mahalanobis. 2020. A Quantum-Secure Niederreiter
Cryptosystem using Quasi-Cyclic Codes (v2). (ICETE 2018) - Volume 2
SECRYPT.
Au, Eubanks-Turner, & Everson. 2013. The McEliece Cryptosystem.
A. Ferozpuri and K. Gaj, “High-speed FPGA Implementation of the
NIST Round 1 Rainbow Signature Scheme,” 2018 International Conference
on ReConFigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig), Cancun, Mexico,
2018. doi: 10.1109/RECONFIG.2018.8641734.
Erdem Alkim, Roberto Avanzi, Joppe Bos et. al. 2020. NewHope.
Algorithm Specifications and Supporting Documentation.

274
 Chapter 14 Post-Quantum Cryptography

Gentry, Sahai and Waters. 2013. Homomorphic Encryption from

Learning with Errors: Conceptually-Simpler, Asymptotically-Faster,
Attribute-Based.
Robshaw & Katz. Advances in Cryptology – CRYPTO 2016. Springer.
ISBN 978-3-662-53008-5.
Parmar, Padhar, & Patel et. al. Survey of Various Homomorphic
Encryption algorithms and Schemes. International Journal of Computer
Applications (0975 – 8887),Volume 91 – No.8, 2014.
Wang, Hu, & Chen et. al. Accelerating fully homomorphic encryption
using GPU. 2012 IEEE Conference on High Performance Extreme
Computing.
Dai W., Sunar B. (2016) cuHE: A Homomorphic Encryption Accelerator
Library. In: Pasalic E., Knudsen L. (eds) Cryptography and Information
Security in the Balkans. BalkanCryptSec 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, vol 9540. Springer, Cham.
Blum, Feldman, & Micali. 1988. Non-interactive zero-knowledge
and its applications. In Proceedings of the twentieth annual ACM
symposium on Theory of computing (STOC ’88). Association for
Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 103–112. DOI: ­https://doi.
org/10.1145/62212.62222

275
Index
A Application programming
interfaces (APIs), 270
Active Directory (AS), 43
Application-specific integrated
Adiabatic Quantum
circuits (ASIC), 241
Computer (AQC), 224, 225
Archaic black holes, 193
Advanced Encryption
Arrays, 25, 26
Standard (AES), 24, 25, 104
Avalanche photodiodes (APDs), 244
block sizes/key lengths, 33
column-major order, 34, 35
decryption, 41 B
implementation, 32 Basic Euclidean algorithm, 16
key expansion, 37 Basic Input/Output
row-major order, 34, 35 System (BIOS), 127
SPN, 34 BB84
stages Heisenberg’s uncertainty
add round key, 40 principle, 228
bitwise shift operator, 39, 40 key sifting, 229
MixColumns, 40 no-cloning theorem, 230
subBytes, 38 oscillations patterns, 229
symmetric encryption plus sign, 230
system, 32 polarization of photons, 228
XOR, 37 Beam splitters (BS), 242
Advanced Format (AF), 54 BestCrypt Container
AES New Instructions (AES-NI), 32 Encryption, 66
Albert Einstein’s theory, 189–191 Bimodal Lattice Signature Scheme
American National Standards (BLISS), 265
Institute (ANSI), 23 Binary to hexadecimal
Apple File System (APFS), 56 conversion, 29, 30

© Robert Ciesla 2020 277

R. Ciesla, Encryption for Organizations and Individuals,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6056-2
INDEX

BitLocker phishing attack, 94–96

authentication mechanisms, 62 policeware, 96, 97
EFS, 63 ransomware, 100
encryption process, 64 rootkits, 97, 98
versatile encryption tool, 62 spyware, 98
versions, 63 virus, 99
Black holes worm, 99
archaic, 193 Boy-in-the-Browser (BITB), 93
basic regions, 193 Bra-ket notation, 178
ergosphere, 194 Brute-force attack (BFA), 76, 78
event horizon, 195 Business email
Higgs boson, 198 compromise (BEC), 94
no-hair theorem, 193
primordial, 193
quasars, 193 C
quiet region, 194 Caesar’s cipher, 2, 4
sci-fi trope, 192 Canadian Association of Chiefs of
singularity speculation, 195, 196 Police (CACP), 155
standard model, 196–198 Central processing unit (CPU), 210
Bloch sphere Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches
complex numbers, 179 des Télécoms (CERT), 165
geometrical representation, 177 Certificate authority (CA), 20, 24
imaginary numbers, 178 Chaos Computer Club (CCC), 61
one/zero state, 177 Cipher block chaining (CBC),
quantum physics, 176 49, 59, 60
qubits, 177 Closest vector problem (CVP), 265
silicone-based brethren, 179 Code-based cryptography, 261
superdense coding, 179 Commitment schemes, 272, 273
Blockchain technology, 182 Computer and Internet Protocol
Boston University Photonics Address Verifier (CIPAV), 97
Center (BUPC), 247 Compute Unified Device
Botnet Architecture (CUDA), 270
DDOS, 94 Continuous-variable (CV)
definition, 93 protocol, 232

278
 INDEX

Controlled-controlled-not D
(CCNOT) gate, 217, 222
DARPA Quantum Network
Counter Mode (CTR), 50
BBN Technologies, 247
Cryptanalysis, 77
SARG04 protocol, 248
Cryptographic attack models, 76,
universal hashing, 248
101
Data Encryption Standard (DES),
Cryptography
11–13, 23
Alberti disk, 6
Decibels (dB), 253
ballistic missiles and Decimal to binary conversion, 27
tanks, 150 Decimal to hexadecimal
Caesar’s cipher, 2 conversion, 28, 29
cipher-text, 2 Decoherence, 202
clay tablets, 2 Decoy state protocol, 236
congenial/malicious Denial-of-service (DoS), 237
actors, 149 Device Group ID (GID), 134
frequency analysis, 3–5 Differential cryptanalysis
Kerckhoffs’s principles, 6 BFA, 78, 79
landmark cases, 150 birthday attack, 78
nonstandard hieroglyphs, 2 contact analysis, 80
permutations and definition, 77
combinations, 2 evil maid attack, 80
physical/visual methods, 7 heuristic attack, 81
plaintext, 2 keylogger, 92
steganography, 5, 6 malware, 92
STO, 7 meet-in-the-middle attack, 82
transmitting messages, 1 MITM, 81
United States, 152 rainbow table, 83
Customs and Border related key attack, 85
Protection (CBP), 153 replay attack, 84
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and rubber-hose attack, 85
Protection Act (CISPA), SCA, 86–91
168, 169 Trojan horses, 92
Cyclic Redundancy Diffie–Hoffman key exchange
Check (CRC), 48 method (DH), 9, 10, 19

279
INDEX

Digital certificates, 19, 20 Exclusive OR (XOR), 37

Digital cryptography, 8 eXtended Merkle Signature
Digital encryption 101, 8, 9 Scheme (XMSS), 258, 260
Digital Encryption
Standard (DES), 31
Digital privacy laws, 168 F
Digital Signature Fault tolerance, 212
Algorithm (DSA), 22 Federal Information Processing
Dirac notation, 178 Standards (FIPS), 22
DiskCryptor, 66 Federal Security Service (FSB), 164
Distributed denial of service Federal Trade Commission (FTC),
(DDOS), 94 98, 165
Domain Name Service (DNS), 113 Fermions, 192
DriveCrypt, 67 Fiber length stretcher (FS), 243
Field programmable array
gates (FPGAs), 241
E File Allocation Table (FAT), 56
Eigenvector, 218 File containers, 58
Einstein field equations (EFEs), 190 File system
Ekert protocol (E91), 232 APFS, 56
Electronic Code Book (ECB), 49 exFAT, 56
Electronic Frontier FAT, 56
Foundation (EFF), 11, 18 HFS+, 57
Electronic polarization operating system, 55
controller (EPC), 243 storage device, 55
Electronic Privacy Information FileVault/FileVault 2, 61, 62
Center (EPIC), 162 Financial privacy laws, 168
ElGamal encryption FinFisher, 97
method, 19 Frequency analysis
Encrypting File System (EFS), 63 ciphertext, 3
Epistemology, 188 encrypted message, 3
Error correction polyalphabetic system, 5
code (ECC), 213, 261 statistical evaluation, 4
Evil maid attack, 80 FTC Safeguards Rule, 166–168, 173

280
 INDEX

Full-disk encryption (FDE), 58, 66 Health Insurance Portability

Fully homomorphic encryption and Accountability
(FHE), 266, 268 Act (HIPAA), 168
Homomorphic
encryption (HE), 266–269
G
General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), I, J
151, 152 Initialization vector (IV), 59
Genetic Information Institute of Electrical and
Nondiscrimination Act Electronics Engineers
(GINA), 168 (IEEE), 23
Graphics processing unit (GPU), 269 Intercept and resend attack (IR), 237
Grover’s algorithm, 258 Intercept and Resend with Faked
States (IRFS), 238
International Electrotechnical
H Commission (IEC), 59
Hadamard gate, 220 International Organization for
Hamiltonian (H), 224 Standardization (ISO), 23, 59
Hash-based cryptography, 258–260 International Telegraph
Hash values Union (ITU), 22
collisions, 42 Internet Engineering Task
identifying messages, 41 Force (IETF), 123
MD4, 43 Internet service provider (ISP), 117
MD5, 43 Intrusion detection system (IDS), 82
padding, 45
SHA-1, 44
SHA-2, 44 K
SHA-3, 44, 45 Key disclosure laws
unique digital fingerprint, 42 Africa, 157
Hidden Field Equations (HFE), 262 Canada, 155
Health Information Technology for encryption tools, 161
Economic and Clinical France, 158
Health Act (HITECH), 168 import, encryption, 163

281
INDEX

Key disclosure laws (cont.) M

Ireland, 155
Mach–Zehnder interferometer, 241
Microsoft’s BitLocker
MacOS
software, 161
approaches, 131–133
New Zealand, 156
security software, 136, 137
radio-electric installation, 162
T2 maintenance 101, 135
rogue states, 162
TPM, apple style, 133, 134
self-incrimination issues, 159
Malware
Sweden, 156
Avast antivirus, 140, 141
United States, 154
Avast antivirus, Avira operations
Key management agent (KMA), 254
GmbH & Co, 142
Bitdefender antivirus, 144
L MCAfee, 147
SpyBot, 145
Lattice-based cryptography,
TDSS killer and virus remove
263–266
tool, 146
Learning with errors (LWE), 264, 265
Man-in-the-Browser (MITB), 93
Least significant bit (LSB), 28
Man-in-the-middle (MITM), 81
Linear cryptanalysis, 77
Medical privacy laws, 168
Linear mapping, 219
Meet-in-the-middle attack, 82
Leighton-Micali
Merkle signature scheme (MSS), 259
Signatures (LMS), 258, 260
Message Digest 4 (MD4), 43
Line length
Message Digest 5 (MD5), 43
measurement (LLM), 239
Michigan Institute of Technology
Linux
(MIT), 18
CryFS, 138, 139
Modern operating systems, 61
FireStarter, 139
Monitoring detector (MD), 243
Linux Unified Key
Most significant bit (MSB), 28
Setup (LUKS), 64, 65
Multivariate cryptography, 262, 263
Logic gates
binary data, 211
CPU, 210 N
quantum-based computing, 209 National Agency for Electronic
XOR, 210 Certification (ANCE), 165

282
 INDEX

National Institute of Standards and Photon number splitting (PSN), 236

Technology (NIST), Planck’s
22, 31, 258 charge, 205
National Security Agency (NSA), 23 constant, 203
Network address length, 203
translation (NAT), 111 mass, 205
Network hardware security temperature, 204
IPv6, 116, 117 time, 204
networks and routers, 107, Post-quantum cryptography
109–113, 115 (PQC), 257, 258
OpenPGP, 123 Pre-boot authentication (PSA), 58
VPN, 117, 118 Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), 19
MacOS, 120, 121 Public-key infrastructure (PKI),
Ubuntu Linux, 122 20, 24
windows, 119, 120
Newton’s laws of motion, 188
NT LAN Manager (NTLM), 43 Q
QKD-network layer (QKD-NL), 250
QKD-transport layer (QKD-TL), 250
O Quantum bit (Qubits)
One-way quantum computer, 225 crime/finance, 181
On multilayer encryption, 104 cryptography, 179, 180
Open Quantum Safe (OQS), 271 entertainment, 183
Optical delay line (DL) manufacturing, 183, 184
medical simulations, 180, 181
political implications, 184
P superposition, 176
Pakistan Telecommunications vs. blockchain, 182
Authority (PTA), 164 Quantum coin flipping, 233
Partially homomorphic Quantum entanglement, 205
encryption (PHE), 267 Quantum error
Pauli gates, 220 correction (QEC), 212, 226
Permutation matrix (P), 218 decoherence, 212
Phishing, 94 ECC, 213

283
INDEX

Quantum error SSP, 231

correction (QEC) (cont.) transmitter/receiver, 244
fault tolerance, 212 Qubit error rate (QBER), 254
logical qubits, 214
no-cloning theorem, 213
no-communication theorem, 213 R
no-deleting theorem, 213 Random access memory (RAM), 34
no-teleportation theorem, 213 Random number generators
Shor code, 214 (RNGs), 17
Quantum Experiments at Space Ransomware, 100, 101
Scale (QUESS), 251 Regulation of Investigatory Powers
Quantum gate array (quantum Act (RIPA), 155
circuit), 215, 216 Replay attack, 84
Quantum key distribution Ring learning with
(QKD), 180 errors (RLWE), 265
atomic/sub-atomic realms, 187 Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4), 49
auxiliary technique, 227 Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA)
B92, 231 algorithm, 182
BB84, 228–230 encrypting/decrypting, 16, 17
BB84 protocol, 235 key generation, 15, 16
classical computing, 235 public-key cryptosystems, 14
components, 240, 241 RNGs, 17
CV protocol, 232 TLS, 14
E91, 232 trapdoors, 17
hardware, 240 Roshal Archive (RAR), 32
implementations, 255, 256 RotWord operation, 37
intensity modulator (IM), 242 Rubber-hose attacks, 85
isolator (I), 242 Run-length encoding (RLE), 248
laser diode (LD), 242
light, 228
narrow band pass filter (F), 242 S
optical attenuator (A), 242 Salting
phase modulator (PM), 242 h14
Shor’s (factoring) algorithm, 232 shing algorithm, 46

284
 INDEX

password/key security, 47 SSL/TLS protocol, 21

passwords, 46 State-level privacy
randomly generated symbols, 45 legislation, 169, 170
stretching, 47 Steganography, 5, 6, 159
Schrödinger’s equation, 220 Sub-atomic particles, 192
Secure Communication based on Subpoena, 172
Quantum Cryptography Substitution–permutation network
(SECOQC) (SPN), 34, 50
components, 250 SwissQuantum, 252, 253
node layout, 249 System Management
quantum channel switching, 249 Controller (SMC), 135
trusted repeater, 249
Secure encrypted systems, 105, 106
Secure Hash Algorithm T
1 (SHA-1), 44 Thermal blinding
Secure Hash Algorithm attack, 238
2 (SHA-2), 44 Third-party encryption, 73
Secure Hash Algorithm BestCrypt, 66
3 (SHA-3), 44, 45 DiskCryptor, 66
Security by obscurity (STO), 7 DriveCrypt, 67
Security Service of eCryptfs, 67
Ukraine (SBU), 165 ProxyCrypt, 68
Self-differencing circuits (SD), 244 tools, 65
Senegal’s Law on VeraCrypt, 68, 69
Cryptography, 164 Toffoli/Fredkin gate, 222, 223
Service set identifier (SSID), 113 Tokyo QKD Network, 253–255
Shor’s factoring algorithm, 232 Topological quantum
Side channel attack (SCA), 86 computer, 223, 224
Six-state protocol (SSP), 231 Transport data
Solid-state drive (SSD), 54, 55 security (TLS), 14
Sponge approach, 44 Trusted Platform
Spontaneous symmetry Modules (TPMs), 126
breaking, 198 Turing test, 79

285
INDEX

U W
Unbalanced oil and Wave–particle duality, 199–201
vinegar (UOV), 262 Web of trust (WOT), 21, 24
Unified Extensible Firmware Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
Interface (UEFI), 128 protocol, 109, 110
Unique ID (UID), 134 Windows-based system
Unitary matrix, 218 BIOS/UEFI/TPM, 127, 128
Universal Plug and Bitlocker, 126
Play (uPnP), 110 security mask, 125
Universal quantum gates, 217 TPM 1.2 vs. 2.0, 128
US federal legislation for TPM device, 129
privacy, 168 USB, 130
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), 110

V
Variables, 25 X, Y
VeraCrypt XTS-AES operating mode, 64
cross-platform support, 72
encryption option, 71
installation, 70 Z
secure file container, 69 Zero-knowledge
Virtual private network (VPN), 117 proof (ZKP), 271–273

286