Classical Cryptography and Quantum Cryptography
Cryptography is the technique which is used for
doing secure communication between two parties in the public environment where
unauthorized users and malicious attackers are present. In cryptography there
are two processes i.e. encryption and decryption performed at sender and
receiver end respectively. Encryption is the processes where a simple multimedia
data is combined with some additional data (known as key) and converted into
unreadable encoded format known as Cipher. Decryption is the reverse method as
that of encryption where the same or different additional data (key) is used to
decode the cipher and it is converted in to the real multimedia data.
Cryptography techniques can be categorized
according to their basic principles or protocols they follow. But here we are
going to concentrate on the two types of cryptography technique: Classical
Cryptography and Quantum
Cryptography.
These are explained as following below.
In
the classical cryptography the original data i.e., the plain text is
transformed into the encoded format i.e. cipher text so that we can transmit
this data through insecure communication channels. A data string which known as
key is used to control the transformation of the data from plain text to cipher
text. This arrangement helps to keep data safe as it required the key for
extracting the original information from the cipher text. Without the key no
one can read the data. In this technique it is assumed that the only authorized
receiver has the key.
Classical Cryptography has two types of techniques:
![Symmetric Cryptography Symmetric Cryptography](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4rNSktUakE4hyphenhyphenfvf6ADU3ixr-fDXNIAI-t2Rx5zRDeIV6k67EiHxB_vuq_HPO3JWwB0S2_zpYZ8ts8BKW0zE19-q3FWqL2crGLmDSTP7gb6suhHdApycOX16G2a03RRGPdV8UoO7bCU/w320-h143/Symmetric+Cryptography.jpg)
![Asymmetric Cryptography Asymmetric Cryptography](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJoLilh72fk7otioDbonfhZaq85i-WxRSDniABnq73Hgi-XGZ64LP35X2LjtS_a9s0M1Sg1q-_YkfCy2KxyHwCaBuHwtdi82fD1dWXmNGnxkAAR3XdWGpI7_SaBPm3COpw5WP97EUZIjE/w320-h147/Asymmetric+Cryptography.jpg)
1.
Advantages of Classical Cryptography:
·
While
employing the one-time pad, it is unbreakable.
·
It
is easy to do manually, no computer required.
·
It
protects the plain text from casual snooping.
Disadvantages of Classical Cryptography:
·
While
employing the one-time pad, it is cumbersome and requires a personal meetup to
exchange the pads.
·
If
not employing the OTP, anyone who is even remotely interested in knowing what
you wrote and knows about cryptography will be able to break the encryption.
There are 2 important elements of quantum
mechanics on which quantum cryptography depends: Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle and Photon
Polarization Principle. These are explained as following below.
Advantages of Quantum
Cryptography:
·
It
establishes secure communication by providing security based on fundamental
laws of physics instead of mathematical algorithms or computing technologies
used today.
·
It
is virtually unhackable.
·
It
is simple to use.
·
Less
resources are needed in order to maintain it.
·
It
is used to detect eavesdropping in QKD (Quantum Key Distribution). This is due
to the fact that it is not possible to copy the data encoded in quantum state.
·
The
performance of such cryptography systems is continuously improved.
Disadvantages of Quantum
Cryptography:
·
The
world wide implementation of this can take up lots of jobs and hence
unemployment will increase.
·
While
traveling through the channel polarization of photon may change due to various
causes.
·
Quantum
cryptography lacks many vital features such as digital signature, certified
mail etc.
·
The
largest distance supported by QKD is about 250 KM at a speed of 16 bps through
guided medium.
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