What is ENCRYPTION

What is ENCRYPTION

When you put a website on the Internet, it will be reachable via the numerical IP address of the web server hosting it (at time of writing, EDRi.org’s address is 217.72.179.7, for example). IP addresses are, however, not easy to remember for humans. Using them to identify online resources is also not practical as services on the Internet occasionally have to move to a new IP address (if they change service providers, for example).
As the use of IP addresses for websites is neither practical nor user friendly, “domain names” (such as edri.org) were created. The global Domain Name System works a little like a phonebook for the Internet.
If you know the domain name of the website you want to visit, the Domain Name System is used – invisibly and automatically – to find the corresponding IP address of the web server where the website can be found. So, when you type http://edri.org, your computer identifies this as being 217.72.179.7 and sends a request
to protect when encrypting a message is its integrity (i.e. the completeness of the file) – otherwise the message can be manipulated, without even knowing the encryption key. Most respected encryption tools will do that for you automatically.

The following image demonstrates the stages of public key encryption – this works on the basis of a pair of keys – one public and one private:

1.The sender requests a copy of this public key.
2.Using the appropriate software, the sender encrypts the message using the recipient’s public key.
3.The message is sent.
4.The recipient decrypts the message by using the public key and the private key together.

There is a great need to ensure the confidentiality of business transactions over a

network between an enterprise and its consumers, between enterprises, and within an

enterprise. SAS products and third-party strategies for protecting data and credentials

(user IDs and passwords) are exchanged in a networked environment. This process of

protecting data is called encryption. Encryption is the transformation of intelligible

data (plaintext) into an unintelligible form (ciphertext) by means of a mathematical

process. The ciphertext is translated back to plaintext when the appropriate key that is

necessary for decrypting (unlocking) the ciphertext is applied.

SAS offers two classes of encryption strength: accidental exposure of information. SASProprietary is licensed with Base SAS

software and is available in all deployments.

• 􀀀 If you have SAS/SECURE, you can use an industry standard encryption algorithm
• instead of the SASProprietary algorithm. SAS/SECURE is an add-on product that
• is licensed separately.
• Encryption helps to protect information on-disk and in-transit as follows:
• 􀀀 Over-the-wire encryption protects SAS data and data while in transit. Passwords
• in transit to and from SAS servers are encrypted or encoded.
• 􀀀 On-disk encryption protects data at rest. Passwords in configuration files and the
• metadata are encrypted or encoded. Configuration files and metadata repository
• data sets are also host protected.
•