Üsküdar University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Computer Engineering Department Instructor Fatih Temiz found information and recommendations on the encryption system cryptography, which is still used today.
Stating that cryptography is the science of encryption, which aims at secure communication between two people or parties and enables the information to be transformed into a form that cannot be understood by undesirable people, Dr. Instructor Fatih Temiz, “Ancient Greek kryptos (hidden) and grapheia (writing) sözcüconsists of a combination of We can say that the history of cryptography is almost as old as the invention of writing. Some scientists even think that the invention of writing was a kind of cryptography, that is, secret communication.” said.
Dr. Instructor Fatih Temiz said that one of the oldest known examples of cryptography was used by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in BC and continued his words as follows:
“Julus Caesar was communicating with his soldiers using the Caesar cipher, which is now named after him. In this encryption, each letter was replaced by the next three letters in the alphabet, resulting in a meaningless message. For example, the message “Üsküdar” was converted into the meaningless “ZUNZGÇT” text by people who were not familiar with this method. Those who knew the password, on the other hand, were getting the clear message of “Üsküdar” again by replacing the “Zunzgçt” ciphertext with the letters three before them. A similar and simple encryption method is the encryption method in which letters are replaced by any letter in the alphabet. In order to crack the password in this encryption method, although there are an incredible number of different possible situations such as 8, 841, 761, 993, 739, 701, 954, 543, 616, 000 in Turkish, the letter frequency statistics of the languages are used in these cryptosystems. It can be solved in seconds.”
“The Germans invented Enigma in the 20th century”
Stating that these and similar encryption methods, which are now primitive, were replaced by electromechanical devices such as the famous encryption machine Enigma in the 20th century. Instructor Its member, Fatih Temiz, said, “Enigma, which was invented by the Germans, had a very important role in the course of the Second World War. Enigma, which can transform the same letter into different letters or different letters into the same letter depending on the position in which it is used, was thought to be flawless and unbreakable. There were approximately 160 quintillion different possible settings for Enigma, and the settings were changed daily. Meanwhile, in Bletchley Park, England, a team including Alan Turing, who is known today as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, was working to crack Enigma. They eventually succeeded in cracking Enigma's code by developing a device called the Bombe, which is considered to be one of the first known computers. Historians think that this event caused the war to end two years earlier and saved millions of lives.” he said.
“Cryptography is still used today”
Stating that cryptography, which has been used mostly in military and diplomatic fields in history, has started to be used in a wide range with the development of today's computer technology and the spread of the internet. Instructor Fatih Temiz said, “Today, we use cryptography when messaging with mobile phone applications, shopping on websites, using internet banking, using blockchain technology and using smart home systems. We also use cryptography when signing a document or electronically authenticating using an electronic signature.” said.
Emphasizing that cryptography is primarily used for secure communication and communication, Dr. Instructor Its member, Fatih Temiz, said, “In today's information age, we are constantly transmitting a large amount of data to one place. Cryptography is used to ensure our security during these communications. Cryptography is used in the products we use to ensure our personal privacy, home and vehicle security, and financial security. We also use cryptography for authentication and document signing purposes. For example, the passwords we set for e-mail or social media accounts are not stored in databases as we set them. They are converted and stored into complex and meaningless-seeming expressions with special functions called cryptographic hash functions.” he said.
“Cyber attacks increased after the pandemic”
Pointing out that cyber attacks have accelerated and multiplied tremendously in recent years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, with many companies starting to work remotely, Dr. Instructor Member Fatih Temiz said, “While most of the attacks on companies or institutions of this type target security vulnerabilities, social engineering and phishing attacks are mostly carried out against individuals. It is a common method to try to obtain their passwords by directing people to fake similars of well-known websites. The passwords of social media and e-mail accounts are frequently stolen and changed with this method.” used his statements.
Dr. Instructor Fatih Temiz emphasized that when choosing our passwords, we should be careful not to include information that is known or can be guessed by others, and continued his words as follows:
“Information such as our date of birth, the team we hire, license plate code is very risky for choosing a password. For example, for Wi-Fi passwords, there are programs that quickly try multiple passwords that are common or may make sense to many. The length of passwords is also an important criterion for security. Short passwords are much easier to crack. That's why many websites set requirements such as the length of passwords, uppercase, lowercase, and special character requirements. One of the most secure password choices is passwords that are meaningful to the individual only, contain 8 or more characters, and are long enough, consisting of both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, or special characters.”
“It is necessary to make sure that the sites are original”
Expressing that when entering our password on a website or mobile application, we need to make sure that this site is original. Instructor Member Fatih Temiz said, “We should not click on links in messages and e-mails that do not come from a reliable recipient, or we should be very careful when clicking. It should also be noted that public Wi-Fi networks are inherently insecure. When using such networks, a VPN should be used, or if it is not available, no transactions with credentials or credit cards should be made.” he said.
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