Homework Part 01

Class 1 - Cryptography

Choose one or more of the assignments below. For each one, do the practical work and write a short explanation of how it works. The advanced questions are optional deeper dives for those who want to.

I chose the first part of the homework question from the first sesson on Cyber Security Zoom Class: Question: Create a public/private key pair. What is the public key? What is the private key? What can this key pair be used for?
Why must the private key be protected?

First, from the first help session that lasted for a few hours, I learnt installing the SSH terminal access interface. And a little bit of help from friends and online, I could generate keys (the private and public keys). I could learn the importance of these keys as;

The public key has the extension as .pub. This is the key one can share openly for all without any hesitation that can encrypt and verify the signatures. It is rather a safe key to share. While the private key is a long string of characters one must not share at any cost. It is too personal, hence the name private key. This key is used to decrypt or sign things. It remains on the computer. I could also learn that sharing the private key posses risks - anyone having the access to the private key can mimic or impersonate on any server. It is like our signature has been copied by others exactly on the cheque and withdrawing the money. Therefore, private key must be well protected!!!