Encryption vs. Encoding/Obfuscation Give a detailed paper discussing the differences between encryption and encoding. Expand upon the...

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Encryption vs. Encoding/Obfuscation
Give a detailed paper discussing the differences between encryptionand encoding. Expand upon the use of these in the execution ofmalware. Discuss the different forms of encryption, their history,and implementations.

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First of all we understand the difference between Encoding and Encryption ENCODING The purpose of encoding is to transform data so that it can be properly and safely consumed by a different type of system eg binary data being sent over email or viewing special characters on a web page The goal is not to keep information secret but rather to ensure that its able to be properly consumed Encoding transforms data into another format using a scheme that is publicly available so that it can easily be reversed It does not require a key as the only thing required to decode it is the algorithm that was used to encode it Encoding is not used to protect or secure data because it is easy to reverse Examples ascii unicode URL Encoding base64 ENCRYPTION The purpose of encryption is to transform data in order to keep it secret from others eg sending someone a secret letter that only they should be able to read or securely sending a password over the Internet Rather than focusing on usability the goal is to ensure the data cannot be consumed by anyone other than the intended recipients Encryption transforms data into another format in such a way that only specific individuals can reverse the transformation It uses a key which is kept secret in conjunction with the plaintext and the algorithm in order to perform the encryption operation As such the ciphertext algorithm and key are all required to return to the plaintext Encryption is used when data needs to be protected so those without the decryption keys cannot access the original data When data is sent to a website over HTTPS it is encrypted using the public key type Examples aes blowfish rsa Now we understand how Encoding and Encryption executed the malware Use of encryption in the execution of malware Most people dont want malware on their computers obviously As a result individuals and organizations deploy antivirus firewalls and other cyber defense solutions in order to minimize the probability that theyll be infected While these solutions arent always effective they work fairly effectively against many known threats This creates a high bar for malware authors who not only need to get their malware into a target network but also need to be able to execute it on the target systems once its there Malware is delivered in a variety of different ways everything from phishing emails to infected USB drives to network worms that spread themselves by exploiting vulnerabilities in networkfacing services Encryption plays a key role in the success of many malware variants trying to perform this initial step of delivery and execution Most antiviruses work based off of signature matching which attempts to identify certain bits of code or text in the malware sample By encrypting the majority of the sample and leaving just enough code unencrypted to decrypt and run the code malware authors can make their software that much harder to detect This behavior is extremely important when malware is attempting to evade the protections provided by Intrusion Detection Systems and similar cybersecurity solutions The alerts provided by these systems and computer system logs are regularly monitored and reviewed by security teams as part of their detection strategy By encrypting the malware as it moves to the machine and its later communications malware operators decrease the probability that useful data will be captured in these alerts or log files Use of encoding in the execution of See Answer

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