Cisco Cisco Web Security Appliance S170 Guía Del Usuario
Chapter 10 Decryption Policies
Digital Cryptography Terms
10-6
Cisco IronPort AsyncOS 7.1 for Web User Guide
OL-23207-01
Digital Cryptography Terms
To understand how encryption and decryption works, you need to understand a
little bit about cryptographic encoding techniques.
little bit about cryptographic encoding techniques.
describes some
terms used in cryptography that are discussed in this chapter.
Table 10-1
Cryptography Terms and Definitions
Term
Definition
Certificate authority
An entity which issues digital certificates for use by
other parties.
other parties.
Certificate authorities are sometimes referred to as
trusted third parties. Certificate authorities are
typically commercial companies that charge for their
services. However, some institutions and governments
have their own certificate authorities, and some offer
their services for free.
trusted third parties. Certificate authorities are
typically commercial companies that charge for their
services. However, some institutions and governments
have their own certificate authorities, and some offer
their services for free.
Cipher
An algorithm used for encoding and decoding text to
make it unreadable to any system without the
appropriate key.
make it unreadable to any system without the
appropriate key.
Ciphers work with keys to encode or decode text.
Ciphertext
Encoded text after a cipher has been applied to it.
Digital certificate
An electronic document that identifies and describes
an organization that has been verified and signed by a
trusted organization called a certificate authority.
an organization that has been verified and signed by a
trusted organization called a certificate authority.
A digital certificate is similar in concept to an
“identification card.” SSL uses certificates to
authenticate servers.
“identification card.” SSL uses certificates to
authenticate servers.
For more information about digital certificates, see
.
Digital signature
A checksum that verifies that a message was created
by the stated author and was not altered since its
creation.
by the stated author and was not altered since its
creation.
Key
A numeric parameter used by a cipher to encode or
decode text.
decode text.