Cryptography has many interconnected components that ensure the work of systems and algorithms. They all have their characteristics, which are most important in different areas of application and professional sectors. However, I am most impacted by such a component as encryption algorithms, or rather their differences. Modern encryption algorithms use the same basic principles of symmetric or asymmetric coding, but they have various implementations and, therefore, different parameters. For example, the RSA algorithm, which uses asymmetric keys, requires more memory and time to encrypt a message, but it is more secure because there is no need to share the private key (Patil et al., 2016). Therefore, I must take these features into account to select the optimal algorithm that suits the client company. This knowledge also improves my communication with clients, as I can answer their questions and show my competence. In addition, I can also sometimes distinguish which algorithm the system is applied to and evaluate its safety when I am a regular user, which helps me use only secure sites and channels of communication.
Moreover, the principles of cryptography and aspects of information security, which can be viewed as a component of cryptography, also have a significant impact since, without them, coding will fail to work. For example, lack of confidentiality hinders encryption because if there is no key secrecy, the data is insecure. Another example is the principle of entity authentication, which guarantees the identity of the sender and the recipient, as the absence of this procedure makes encryption meaningless (Taha et al., 2019). Although I have unknowingly applied these principles before, their knowledge greatly influences my understanding of cryptography components and their application.
References
Patil, P., Narayankar, P., Narayan D.G., & Meena S.M. (2016). A comprehensive evaluation of cryptographic algorithms: DES, 3DES, AES, RSA and Blowfish. Procedia Computer Science, 78, 617–624.
Taha, M. S., Rahim, M. S. M., Lafta, S. A., Hashim, M. M., and Alzuabidi, H. M. (2019). Combination of steganography and cryptography: A short survey. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 518(5), 1-13.