SSL cert errors happen when a browser isn’t able to verify that the SSL certificate has been installed on a website. This will flag the site as insecure and will require you to manually override and proceed to the site or navigate away from the page.
There are several kinds of SSL errors:
– SSL cert is not trusted
– Name mismatch
-Mixed content
-Expired SSL
You can fix theses errors by using an online tool like SSL Checker to verify which SSL cert your are missing. Once you have that info, you can install an intermediate cert to establish the connection, generate a new “Certificate Signing Request” or CSR, upgrade to a dedicated IP address for your site, get a wildcard SSL cert, change all the URLs to HTTPS by editing the source code of the page and finally you could also renew the certificate if it is expired.
You can find websites that provide step-by-step tutorials on any of the fixes listed above.
Encryption does not protect your data. It protects access to your data. Enough time and computing resources can be used to hack or decrypt the encrypted data, to reveal the original content. Hackers prefer to steal encryption keys or intercept data before or after encryption. The most common way to crack encrypted data is to use the attacker’s key to add an encryption layer. All encrypted data can be hacked. As we develop more powerful computers and higher-order mathematical operations, the spotlight becomes stronger on the weakest link (people using encryption technology). It is necessary to understand, develop and make good use of information security practice in addition to worry about if the encrypted data can be hacked.
Encryption, like all other forms of security are not 100%. Cracking encryption is all about computing power. The stronger the computational power, the better chances you have at cracking an encryption cipher. This is way there is a lot of talk about quantum computing these days and its ability to crack our current encryption standards. The jury is still out on this, but if history is any indication, infosec as a whole will need to develop stronger encryption standards as the processing power of computers grows.
Hi Wenyao,
I agree with Anthony that encryption is all about computing power. Current day encryption works because the current computing power is weak to crack the current encryption standards in short amount of time. It is only a matter of time the computing power grows exponentially and will require upgrades in encryption ciphers for it to work with the growing computing power.
The symmetric encryption algorithm only transfers the possibility of leakage from the cipher text to the encryption algorithm and the secret key. For example, if you use a secret key that is as long as the original string to perform XOR encryption every time you encrypt, it is absolutely safe in theory.
Symmetric key encryption, also known as private key encryption, means that the sender and receiver of information use encrypt and decrypt data. Its biggest advantage is fast encryption/decryption speed, suitable for encrypting large amounts of data, but key management is difficult.
Asymmetric key encryption, also known as public-key encryption, requires using a pair of keys to complete the encryption and decryption operations. One is publicly released, that is, the public key, and the other is kept secret by the user, the private key. The message sender uses the public key to encrypt, and the message receiver uses the private key to decrypt. The public key mechanism is flexible, but the encryption and decryption speed is much slower than symmetric key encryption.
Great answer! I would like to add an encrypted symmetric key can be encrypted again with with the sender’s public key or receiver’s public key to further enhance security.
With the advancement of quantum computers, the encryption used for communicating will be cracked easier and users can read everything in plaintext if they have access to this type of computing power. Do you feel cryptography will be useless? If yes, does that mean the end of confidentiality and privacy when communicating online?
Hi Jonathan,
I agree with you that Quantum computers are one of the potential threats to cryptography. Although quantum computers can currently only solve certain types of problems, this situation will not last forever. Quantum computers can effectively break the current popular public key algorithms. This sounds terrible.
I think when people designing the blockchain and the underlying encryption algorithm, should consider how to make it have anti-quantum properties, which is very important.
Symmetric encryption is simple, less costly and usually requires less processing time and RAM. Asymmetric keys are more expensive, complex and require more processing time to encrypt. Symmetric keys do have some problems though if the key is compromised or in the initial communications between parties when the key needs to be exchanged. Ultimately, most organizations use both symmetric and asymmetric keys for the cryptographic lifecycle.
Symmetric encryption is simple, less complex, faster, and best-known encryption technique. It uses one key for both encryption and decryption. Disadvantage of symmetric encryption is that it causes more damage if compromised. What this means is If someone gets access to symmetric key, they can decrypt and encrypt everything with the key. Asymmetric encryption is more secure as it uses different keys for encryption and decryption. The disadvantage is that it takes more time than symmetric encryption.
In my own understanding, both code and cipher refer to passwords, but they encrypt information in different ways. The code uses other words or letters to replace the original words, while the ciphers use symbols to replace individual letters, and the order of the letters can also be changed.
How I understand it, a cipher in a traditional sense is a system to make a word or message secret by changing or rearranging the letters in the message. An example of a cipher would be the “rotation 13” algorithm (ROT13) where letters are assigned the letter 13 spots after it in the alphabet. This results in A=N, B=O, etc. A code is a way of changing entire words or phrases into something else. Codes generally require a reference or a code book to interpret the message which is why the use of codes as fallen out of general use.
For encryption, the longer the key the harder it can be decrypted by brutal force. Are there other kinds of encryption method that could have shorter key length but hard to break though?
Former US cyber chief calls for military to attack hackers. The former US government cyber security chief ahs called for the military to target organized criminal gangs of hackers who launch ransomware attacks on companies and governments. He suggested military cyber attackers could try to deter gangs using ransomware by publishing their private details, a tactic known as doxing. Ransomware attacks have become increasingly prevalent in recent years as criminals have taken advantage of the widespread use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin to collect payment without being tracked. The shift to remote working during the pandemic has left businesses more vulnerable to attacks. The practice has become more common in part due to the development of the “ransomware-as-a-service” market, where sophisticated hackers rent out their expertise to criminals without the requisite coding skills needed to launch an attack. https://www.ft.com/content/27c09769-ceb5-46dd-824f-40b684d681ae
The main difference between symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption are the keys used. In symmetric, they will be the same key used to encrypt and decrypt a file. In asymmetric encryption, one key is used to encrypt the data, the receiver has a different key used to decrypt the data(public and private keys).
The basic difference between these two types of encryption is that symmetric encryption uses one key for both encryption and decryption. This is also a faster form of encryption. The asymmetric encryption uses public key for encryption and a private key for decryption and takes more time to complete the process on both ends.
In the symmetric encryption algorithm, encryption and decryption use the same key, that is, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt the same password.
Asymmetric encryption has two keys, a public key and a private key . The public key and the private key exist in pairs. If the original text is encrypted with the public key, only the corresponding private key can be used to decrypt it.
A one-way hash is a function that takes a variable length string and produces a fixed length value called a hash value. One-way hash function cannot be reversed as it is designed that way and can function in only one direction. One way hash function is one of the best methods to ensure the integrity of the data.
Each has a block size of 128 bits but have three different key lengths: 128, 192 and 256 bits.
The key “size” in the cipher specifies the number of transformation rounds that convert the input aka plaintext into the ciphertext. Respectively, 10 rounds, 12 rounds and 14 rounds for each bit key.
AES is a symmetric type of encryption, it have three lengths and each key length has a different number of possible key combinations:
128-bit key length: 3.4 x 1038
192-bit key length: 6.2 x 1057
256-bit key length: 1.1 x 1077
Hi Anthony,
Each key has the block has a block length of 128 bits.
the three different key lengths are 128, 192, 256. the key lengths are determined based on trade off between speed/accessibility and security. The more secure the key the lower the accessibility.
The book mentioned about human issues in cryptography, and I highlighted this in my post as well. Why are users the weakest link and threat to data security and how can this be prevented?
Users are considered the weakest link and the biggest threat to data security because human users are more inclined to manual errors. We are not robots trained by algorithms so we are unable to identify patterns as quickly, we might not realize a suspicious email is phishing because we are accepting only stagnant forms of threats we know. This can be prevented by additional training and monitoring for users to get familiar with identifying phishing and build behavior to lessen the risks.
Symmetric encryption was used in some common area in our daily life, such as payment applications and card transactions where PII needs to be protected to prevent identity theft or fraudulent charges, validations to confirm that the sender of a message is who he claims to be, or random number generation or hashing.
VPN encryption prevents third parties to read data as it passes through the internet. Both IPsec and SSL/TLS VPNs can provide enterprise-level secure remote access, but they do so in fundamentally different ways. IPsec VPNs protect IP packets exchanged between remote networks or hosts and an IPsec gateway located at the edge of your private network. SSL/TLS VPN products protect application traffic streams from remote users to an SSL/TLS gateway.
AES provides the most secure algorithm. In the symmetric encryption algorithm, the encryption and decryption keys are the same. The key is negotiated between the receiver and the sender, but it cannot be directly transmitted on the network, otherwise the key will be leaked. Usually the key is encrypted by an asymmetric encryption algorithm, and then transmitted to the other party through the network, or directly discussed face-to-face Key.
Hi, Vanessa. I just read about how quantum computing can identify vulnerabilities in commonly used encryption, even the advanced encryption standards. In my opinion, I think quantum key encryption can help us to avoid these kinds of vulnerabilities and make it more complicated for the attack to break the encryption since it combines classical cipher and some properties of quantum mechanics.
Probably the most popular tool on the internet right now! 🙂
VPN = Virtual Private Network
It’s a way to provide the user with online privacy and anonymity by allowing you to create a private network across a public internet connection. Your IP is masked when you use a VPN making your activity untraceable. You can hide your browsing history, your IP address and location, your streaming locations, your devices, and your web activity.
When selecting a VPN you should look out for a few things:
– Privacy – do they have a no-log policy?
– Protocols – are they running the most current protocol?
– Bandwidth – do they limit your data?
– Server – where are they located?
– Devices – can you set up a VPN on multiple devices or different types?
– Cost – free vs paid AND what is included in each
What could cause SSL or TLS certificate error?
SSL cert errors happen when a browser isn’t able to verify that the SSL certificate has been installed on a website. This will flag the site as insecure and will require you to manually override and proceed to the site or navigate away from the page.
There are several kinds of SSL errors:
– SSL cert is not trusted
– Name mismatch
-Mixed content
-Expired SSL
You can fix theses errors by using an online tool like SSL Checker to verify which SSL cert your are missing. Once you have that info, you can install an intermediate cert to establish the connection, generate a new “Certificate Signing Request” or CSR, upgrade to a dedicated IP address for your site, get a wildcard SSL cert, change all the URLs to HTTPS by editing the source code of the page and finally you could also renew the certificate if it is expired.
You can find websites that provide step-by-step tutorials on any of the fixes listed above.
https://blog.hubspot.com/website/fix-ssl-certificate-error#:~:text=An%20SSL%20certificate%20error%20occurs,the%20browser%20you're%20using.
Can encrypted information still be compromised?
Encryption does not protect your data. It protects access to your data. Enough time and computing resources can be used to hack or decrypt the encrypted data, to reveal the original content. Hackers prefer to steal encryption keys or intercept data before or after encryption. The most common way to crack encrypted data is to use the attacker’s key to add an encryption layer. All encrypted data can be hacked. As we develop more powerful computers and higher-order mathematical operations, the spotlight becomes stronger on the weakest link (people using encryption technology). It is necessary to understand, develop and make good use of information security practice in addition to worry about if the encrypted data can be hacked.
Encryption, like all other forms of security are not 100%. Cracking encryption is all about computing power. The stronger the computational power, the better chances you have at cracking an encryption cipher. This is way there is a lot of talk about quantum computing these days and its ability to crack our current encryption standards. The jury is still out on this, but if history is any indication, infosec as a whole will need to develop stronger encryption standards as the processing power of computers grows.
Hi Wenyao,
I agree with Anthony that encryption is all about computing power. Current day encryption works because the current computing power is weak to crack the current encryption standards in short amount of time. It is only a matter of time the computing power grows exponentially and will require upgrades in encryption ciphers for it to work with the growing computing power.
How many will be considered as strong symmetric keys? What do you think is a strong symmetric key?
Hi Haozhe,
The symmetric encryption algorithm only transfers the possibility of leakage from the cipher text to the encryption algorithm and the secret key. For example, if you use a secret key that is as long as the original string to perform XOR encryption every time you encrypt, it is absolutely safe in theory.
How do the strengths of symmetric and asymmetric complement each other in transferring data?
symmetric and asymmetric keys*
Hi Anthony,
Symmetric key encryption, also known as private key encryption, means that the sender and receiver of information use encrypt and decrypt data. Its biggest advantage is fast encryption/decryption speed, suitable for encrypting large amounts of data, but key management is difficult.
Asymmetric key encryption, also known as public-key encryption, requires using a pair of keys to complete the encryption and decryption operations. One is publicly released, that is, the public key, and the other is kept secret by the user, the private key. The message sender uses the public key to encrypt, and the message receiver uses the private key to decrypt. The public key mechanism is flexible, but the encryption and decryption speed is much slower than symmetric key encryption.
Hi Zibai,
Great answer! I would like to add an encrypted symmetric key can be encrypted again with with the sender’s public key or receiver’s public key to further enhance security.
With the advancement of quantum computers, the encryption used for communicating will be cracked easier and users can read everything in plaintext if they have access to this type of computing power. Do you feel cryptography will be useless? If yes, does that mean the end of confidentiality and privacy when communicating online?
Hi Jonathan,
I agree with you that Quantum computers are one of the potential threats to cryptography. Although quantum computers can currently only solve certain types of problems, this situation will not last forever. Quantum computers can effectively break the current popular public key algorithms. This sounds terrible.
I think when people designing the blockchain and the underlying encryption algorithm, should consider how to make it have anti-quantum properties, which is very important.
What are the pros and cons of using Symmetric Encryption? and is it more secure than Asymmetric Encryption?
Symmetric encryption is simple, less costly and usually requires less processing time and RAM. Asymmetric keys are more expensive, complex and require more processing time to encrypt. Symmetric keys do have some problems though if the key is compromised or in the initial communications between parties when the key needs to be exchanged. Ultimately, most organizations use both symmetric and asymmetric keys for the cryptographic lifecycle.
Symmetric encryption is simple, less complex, faster, and best-known encryption technique. It uses one key for both encryption and decryption. Disadvantage of symmetric encryption is that it causes more damage if compromised. What this means is If someone gets access to symmetric key, they can decrypt and encrypt everything with the key. Asymmetric encryption is more secure as it uses different keys for encryption and decryption. The disadvantage is that it takes more time than symmetric encryption.
What’s a main difference between ciphers and codes?
Hi Krish,
In my own understanding, both code and cipher refer to passwords, but they encrypt information in different ways. The code uses other words or letters to replace the original words, while the ciphers use symbols to replace individual letters, and the order of the letters can also be changed.
How I understand it, a cipher in a traditional sense is a system to make a word or message secret by changing or rearranging the letters in the message. An example of a cipher would be the “rotation 13” algorithm (ROT13) where letters are assigned the letter 13 spots after it in the alphabet. This results in A=N, B=O, etc. A code is a way of changing entire words or phrases into something else. Codes generally require a reference or a code book to interpret the message which is why the use of codes as fallen out of general use.
For encryption, the longer the key the harder it can be decrypted by brutal force. Are there other kinds of encryption method that could have shorter key length but hard to break though?
Former US cyber chief calls for military to attack hackers. The former US government cyber security chief ahs called for the military to target organized criminal gangs of hackers who launch ransomware attacks on companies and governments. He suggested military cyber attackers could try to deter gangs using ransomware by publishing their private details, a tactic known as doxing. Ransomware attacks have become increasingly prevalent in recent years as criminals have taken advantage of the widespread use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin to collect payment without being tracked. The shift to remote working during the pandemic has left businesses more vulnerable to attacks. The practice has become more common in part due to the development of the “ransomware-as-a-service” market, where sophisticated hackers rent out their expertise to criminals without the requisite coding skills needed to launch an attack.
https://www.ft.com/content/27c09769-ceb5-46dd-824f-40b684d681ae
What is the main difference between symmetric encryption and asymmetric?
The main difference between symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption are the keys used. In symmetric, they will be the same key used to encrypt and decrypt a file. In asymmetric encryption, one key is used to encrypt the data, the receiver has a different key used to decrypt the data(public and private keys).
The basic difference between these two types of encryption is that symmetric encryption uses one key for both encryption and decryption. This is also a faster form of encryption. The asymmetric encryption uses public key for encryption and a private key for decryption and takes more time to complete the process on both ends.
In the symmetric encryption algorithm, encryption and decryption use the same key, that is, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt the same password.
Asymmetric encryption has two keys, a public key and a private key . The public key and the private key exist in pairs. If the original text is encrypted with the public key, only the corresponding private key can be used to decrypt it.
Can one way hashing systems be reverse-engineered?
A one-way hash is a function that takes a variable length string and produces a fixed length value called a hash value. One-way hash function cannot be reversed as it is designed that way and can function in only one direction. One way hash function is one of the best methods to ensure the integrity of the data.
What are the three key lengths offered by AES?
Each has a block size of 128 bits but have three different key lengths: 128, 192 and 256 bits.
The key “size” in the cipher specifies the number of transformation rounds that convert the input aka plaintext into the ciphertext. Respectively, 10 rounds, 12 rounds and 14 rounds for each bit key.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard#:~:text=For%20AES%2C%20NIST%20selected%20three,which%20was%20published%20in%201977.
AES is a symmetric type of encryption, it have three lengths and each key length has a different number of possible key combinations:
128-bit key length: 3.4 x 1038
192-bit key length: 6.2 x 1057
256-bit key length: 1.1 x 1077
Hi Anthony,
Each key has the block has a block length of 128 bits.
the three different key lengths are 128, 192, 256. the key lengths are determined based on trade off between speed/accessibility and security. The more secure the key the lower the accessibility.
The book mentioned about human issues in cryptography, and I highlighted this in my post as well. Why are users the weakest link and threat to data security and how can this be prevented?
Users are considered the weakest link and the biggest threat to data security because human users are more inclined to manual errors. We are not robots trained by algorithms so we are unable to identify patterns as quickly, we might not realize a suspicious email is phishing because we are accepting only stagnant forms of threats we know. This can be prevented by additional training and monitoring for users to get familiar with identifying phishing and build behavior to lessen the risks.
How do we use symmetric encryption in our daily activities for confidentiality?
Symmetric encryption was used in some common area in our daily life, such as payment applications and card transactions where PII needs to be protected to prevent identity theft or fraudulent charges, validations to confirm that the sender of a message is who he claims to be, or random number generation or hashing.
Why are VPNs so popular? Are they better than SSL/TPS or IPsec?
VPN encryption prevents third parties to read data as it passes through the internet. Both IPsec and SSL/TLS VPNs can provide enterprise-level secure remote access, but they do so in fundamentally different ways. IPsec VPNs protect IP packets exchanged between remote networks or hosts and an IPsec gateway located at the edge of your private network. SSL/TLS VPN products protect application traffic streams from remote users to an SSL/TLS gateway.
What would be a real world example of humans using “authentication” with each other?
What areas of cryptography are you familiar with? What do you think is the best form of cryptography?
What is a weakness of a code? How is this avoided?
What’s the best form and combination of encryption？ What are the specific criteria?
AES provides the most secure algorithm. In the symmetric encryption algorithm, the encryption and decryption keys are the same. The key is negotiated between the receiver and the sender, but it cannot be directly transmitted on the network, otherwise the key will be leaked. Usually the key is encrypted by an asymmetric encryption algorithm, and then transmitted to the other party through the network, or directly discussed face-to-face Key.
What do you guys know about quantum key encryption?
Hi, Vanessa. I just read about how quantum computing can identify vulnerabilities in commonly used encryption, even the advanced encryption standards. In my opinion, I think quantum key encryption can help us to avoid these kinds of vulnerabilities and make it more complicated for the attack to break the encryption since it combines classical cipher and some properties of quantum mechanics.
what is a VPN? what are the different kinds of VPN?
Probably the most popular tool on the internet right now! 🙂
VPN = Virtual Private Network
It’s a way to provide the user with online privacy and anonymity by allowing you to create a private network across a public internet connection. Your IP is masked when you use a VPN making your activity untraceable. You can hide your browsing history, your IP address and location, your streaming locations, your devices, and your web activity.
When selecting a VPN you should look out for a few things:
– Privacy – do they have a no-log policy?
– Protocols – are they running the most current protocol?
– Bandwidth – do they limit your data?
– Server – where are they located?
– Devices – can you set up a VPN on multiple devices or different types?
– Cost – free vs paid AND what is included in each
VPN paid:
Norton Secure VPN – $4.99/mo, $7.99/mo, $9.99/mo
PureVPN – $10.95/mo
PVanish – $11.99/mo
CyberGhost – $12.99/mo
Hotspot Shield – $12.99/mo
VyprVPN – $12.95/mo
Private Internet Access – $9.95/mo
StrongVPN – $10/mo
Surfshark – $12.95/mo
NordVPN – $11.95/mo
ExpressVPN – $12.95/mo
TorGuard – $9.99/mo
Encrypt.me – $12.99/mo
Safer VPN – $12.95/mo
HMA – $59.88/year (only annual plans available)
Tunnel Bear – $9.99/mo
VPN free:
Hotspot Shield – a free version is available with 500 MB/day data limit
Tunnel Bear – free version with up to 500MB of secure browsing
https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-what-is-a-vpn.html