Today, many encrypted networks use insecure cryptography. Attackers exploiting weak cryptography are nearly undetectable, and the data you think is secure is less safe every day. Legacy encryption technology can’t keep up with current advances in hacking and brute force computing power. Additionally, legacy solutions are increasingly inefficient as security levels rise, and perform poorly at high data rates. In order to stay ahead of this challenge, encryption needs to evolve.
Some of the best conversations happen in private exchanges and I often wish we could all benefit more broadly. This most recent conversation was instructive in and of itself but it also pointed out a level of transparency both Jimmy Ray and I prefer. So hopefully it goes to say -- we welcome your input! We certainly don’t get it right all the time!
Episode 119 featured Next Generation encryption and we mistakenly attributed Great Britain with breaking Enigma. One of our Cisco fans from Warsaw, Bartlomiej (Bartek) Michalowski, sent us a note.
Cisco’s early adoption and implementation of Next Generation Encryption (NGE) is paving the way for the next decade of cryptographic security. NGE provides a complete algorithm suite, comprised of authenticated encryption, digital signatures, key establishment and cryptographic hashing. These components provide high levels of security and scalability, aimed at setting the standard for the next 10 years of encryption.
The next generation of encryption technologies meets the evolving needs of agencies and enterprises by utilizing modern, but well reviewed and tested cryptographic algorithms and protocols. As an example, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is used in place of the more traditional Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithms. By upgrading these algorithms, NGE cryptography prevents hackers from having a single low-point in the system to exploit and efficiently scales to high data rates, while providing all of the security of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cipher
As computing power exponentially increases over time, according to Moore’s Law, attackers have access to more powerful tools to crack encryption keys. However, NGE is capable of staying ahead of this curve by improving security and robustness of Cisco’s already market leading trusted solutions to meet emerging global standards into the future.
Check out the video below to learn more about NGE:
