M8 Practice Quiz

#cryptography #encryption #hashing

Question 1

  1. Jennifer, a network administrator at Dion Training, wants to ensure that a secret communication between two servers remains confidential using a single key for both encryption and decryption processes. Which of the following should they utilize?

    Options:

    • Diffie-Hellman
    • RSA
    • AES
    • ECC

    Overall explanation:

    • AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a widely used symmetric encryption algorithm that encrypts and decrypts data using a single secret key.
    • In contrast, RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman), ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography), and Diffie-Hellman are asymmetric cryptographic techniques.
      • RSA is an algorithm used for both encryption and digital signatures, leveraging the mathematical properties of large prime numbers.
      • ECC, another method for creating public-key cryptosystems, uses elliptic curves over finite fields for encryption, providing efficiency and shorter key lengths.
      • Diffie-Hellman is specifically used for securely exchanging cryptographic keys over public channels, allowing two parties to generate a shared secret without having ever met before.

    Tags: Symmetric Algorithms

Question 2

  1. Robert, a system engineer at Dion Training, wants to securely exchange cryptographic keys over a public channel to initiate encrypted communications with another department. Which of the following should they utilize?

    Options:

    • Diffie-Hellman
    • RSA
    • ECC
    • AES

    Overall explanation:

    • Diffie-Hellman is an asymmetric cryptographic technique specifically designed for securely exchanging cryptographic keys over public channels, allowing two parties to generate a shared secret without having previously met.
    • In contrast, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric encryption algorithm that encrypts and decrypts data using a single secret key.
    • RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) is an asymmetric algorithm mainly used for encryption and digital signatures, leveraging the properties of large prime numbers.
    • ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) is another asymmetric method that uses elliptic curves over finite fields for encryption and is often praised for its efficiency and shorter key lengths.

    Tags: Asymmetric Algorithms

Question 3

  1. Samantha, a cybersecurity analyst at Dion Training, wants to use the most secure hashing algorithm for ensuring the integrity of sensitive documents. Which of the following should she utilize?

    Options:

    • MD5
    • RIPEMD
    • HMAC
    • SHA-256

    Overall explanation:

    • SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit) is widely regarded as one of the most secure hashing algorithms due to its strong resistance to collision attacks and its large output size.
    • In contrast, MD5, once a popular choice, has been found vulnerable to collision attacks and is considered deprecated for many security purposes.
    • RIPEMD, though more secure than MD5, doesn't match the security strength of SHA-256.
    • HMAC (Hash-Based Message Authentication Code) is not a standalone hash function but rather a construction for creating a MAC (message authentication code) involving a cryptographic hash function.
    • Among the given options, SHA-256 is the most secure for hashing.

    Tags: Hashing (OBJ 1.4)

Question 4

  1. Rebecca, a digital forensics expert at Dion Training, wants to discreetly embed a message within an image file without noticeably altering its apparent appearance or structure. Which of the following techniques should she utilize?

    Options:

    • Steganography
    • Data Masking
    • Tokenization
    • Encryption

    Overall explanation:

    • Steganography is the practice of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. The primary objective of steganography is to hide the existence of the message from unauthorized parties. In the context of embedding a message within an image, steganography is the most appropriate choice.
    • Tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive substitutes, data masking alters data to protect the original data's privacy, and encryption transforms data to prevent unauthorized access, but none of these methods discreetly embeds a message within another medium as steganography does.

    Tags: Obfuscation

Question 5

  1. Miguel, a cybersecurity specialist at Dion Training, is concerned about the potential threats that the evolving technologies, like qubit-powered computers, might pose to the company's current encryption algorithms and cryptographic implementation methods. Which of the following solutions should he explore to ensure future cryptographic resilience?

    Options:

    • Secure Public Ledger
    • Post-quantum Cryptographic Algorithm
    • Advanced Data Tokenization
    • Distributed Blockchain System

    Overall explanation:

    • The advent of quantum computers poses a significant threat to many existing cryptographic methods due to their ability to solve problems exponentially faster than classical computers.
    • Post-quantum Cryptographic Algorithms are designed specifically to be secure against quantum computational attacks.
    • While Distributed Blockchain Systems and Secure Public Ledger offer robustness and transparency in transactions and Advanced Data Tokenization can replace sensitive data with non-sensitive substitutes, none specifically address the unique challenges posed by quantum computing in the same way that Post-quantum Cryptographic Algorithms do.

    Tags: Cryptographic Attacks