Cryptanalysis is the process of attempting to decipher encrypted data or obtaini

Question

Cryptanalysis is the process of attempting to decipher encrypted data or obtaining the key used to encrypt data. The strategies used in cryptanalysis depend upon which encryption scheme is being used and what information is readily available to the cryptanalyst. Cryptanalytic attacks vary in potency and how much of a threat they pose to real-world cryptosystems.

The easiest attack to defend against is a cipher text-only attack because the attacker only has the encrypted data from which to work. In this situation the attacker has two avenues of approach—either a brute-force attack or statistical analysis of the cipher text.

Depending upon the nature of the attack, its strength also varies. Select a scenario and the type of attack that you feel can be the most harmful in that situation. Identify the specific harm it could cause and justify why you feel this type of attack could be more destructive than the others.

Explanation / Answer

Statistical analysis will be helpful in case of small texts as the pattern and the nature of encryption used can be easily determined in this case. If the encrypted text is big then brute force will be more harmful as it won't be easy to understand the encrypted text and therefore brute dorce should be used.

These attacks can steal the sensitive information stored in the servers and create problems for the users whos data is stolen. If monetary benefits are involved then it will prove more lethal.

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