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Encrypting Data Methods

Traditionally, several methods can be used to encrypt data streams, all of which can easily be implemented through software, but not so easily decrypted when either the original or its encrypted data stream are unavailable. (When both source and encrypted data are available, code-breaking becomes much simpler, though it is not necessarily easy). The best encryption methods have little effect on system performance, and may contain other benefits (such as data compression) built in. The well-known 'PKZIP®' utility offers both compression and data encryption in this manner. Also DBMS packages have often included some kind of encryption scheme so that a standard 'file copy' cannot be used to read sensitive information that might otherwise require some kind of password to access. They also need 'high performance' methods to encode and decode the data.

Encryption methods can be SYMMETRIC in which encryption and decryption keys are the same, or ASYMMETRIC (aka 'Public Key') in which encryption and decryption keys differ. 'Public Key' methods must be asymmetric, to the extent that the decryption key cannot be easily derived from the encryption key. Symmetric keys, however, usually encrypt more efficiently, so they lend themselves to encrypting large amounts of data. Asymmetric encryption is often limited to only encrypting a symmetric key and other information that is needed in order to decrypt a data stream, and the remainder of the encrypted data uses the symmetric key method for performance reasons. This does not in any way diminish the security nor the ability to use a public key to encrypt the data, since the symmetric key method is likely to be even more secure than the asymmetric method.

For symmetric key ciphers, there are basically two types: BLOCK CIPHERS, in which a fixed length block is encrypted, and STREAM CIPHERS, in which the data is encrypted one 'data unit' (typically 1 byte) at a time, in the same order it was received in. Fortunately, the simplest of all of the symmetric key 'stream cipher' methods is the TRANSLATION TABLE (or 'S table'), which should easily meet the performance requirements of even the most performance-intensive application that requires data to be encrypted. In a translation table, each 'chunk' of data (usually 1 byte) is used as an offset within one or more arrays, and the resulting 'translated' value is then written into the output stream. The encryption and decryption programs would each use a table that translates to and from the encrypted data. 80x86 CPU's have an instruction 'XLAT' that lends itself to this purpose.

While translation tables are very simple and fast, the down side is that once the translation table is known, the code is broken. Further, such a method is relatively straightforward for code breakers to decipher - such code methods have been used for years, even before the advent of the computer. Still, for general "unreadability" of encoded data, without adverse effects on performance, the 'translation table' method lends itself well.

A modification to the 'translation table' uses 2 or more tables, based on the position of the bytes within the data stream, or on the data stream itself. Decoding becomes more complex, since you have to reverse the same process reliably. But, by the use of more than one translation table, especially when implemented in a 'pseudo-random' order, this adaptation makes code breaking relatively difficult. An example of this method might use translation table 'A' on all of the 'even' bytes, and translation table 'B' on all of the 'odd' bytes. Unless a potential code breaker knows that there are exactly 2 tables, even with both source and encrypted data available the deciphering process is relatively difficult.

Similar to using a translation table, 'data repositioning' lends itself to use by a computer, but takes considerably more time to accomplish. This type of cipher would be a trivial example of a BLOCK CIPHER. A buffer of data is read from the input, then the order of the bytes (or other 'chunk' size) is rearranged, and written 'out of order'. The decryption program then reads this back in, and puts them back 'in order'. Often such a method is best used in combination with one or more of the other encryption methods mentioned here, making it even more difficult for code breakers to determine how to decipher your encrypted data. As an example, consider an anagram. The letters are all there, but the order has been changed. Some anagrams are easier than others to decipher, but a well written anagram is a brain teaser nonetheless, especially if it's intentionally misleading.

My favorite methods, however, involve something that only computers can do: word/byte rotation and XOR bit masking. This is very common since it has relatively high ENTROPY in the resulting cipher. High entropy data is difficult to extract information from, and the higher the entropy, the better the cipher. So, if you rotate the words or bytes within a data stream, using a method that involves multiple and variable direction and duration of rotation, in an easily reproducable pattern, you can quickly encode a stream of data with a method that can be nearly impossible to break. Further, if you use an 'XOR mask' in combination with this ('flipping' the bits in certain positions from 1 to 0, or 0 to 1) you end up making the code breaking process even more difficult. The best combination would also use 'pseudo random' effects, the easiest of which might involve a simple sequence like Fibbonaci numbers, which can appear 'pseudo-random' after many iterations of 'modular' arithmetic (i.e. math that 'wraps around' after reaching a limit, like integer math on a computer). The Fibbonaci sequence '1,1,2,3,5,...' is easily generated by adding the previous 2 numbers in the sequence to get the next. Doing modular arithmetic on the result and operating on multiple byte sequences (using a prime number of bytes for block rotation, as one example) would make the code breaker's job even more difficult, adding the 'pseudo-random' effect that is easily reproduced by your decryption program.

In some cases, you may want to detect whether data has been tampered with, and encrypt some kind of 'checksum' or CRC into the data stream itself. This is useful not only for authorization codes and licenses (where encrypted data is expected to be used) but also for programs themselves. A virus that infects such a 'protected' program is likely to neglect any encryption algorithm and authorization/checksum signature that has been written to the executable binary file(s). The program (and any dynamic library) could then check itself each time it loads, and thus detect the presence of file corruption. Such a method would have to be kept very secret, to prevent virus programmers from exploiting it at some point.