Brute-force attacks

- [Instructor] As long as cyber security experts…have used encryption to protect sensitive information,…attackers have sought to undermine that security…and gain unauthorized access to that protected information.…Over the centuries attackers have developed…a number of techniques designed…to help them crack cryptographic algorithms.…Brute-force attacks are the simplest form of attack…against a cryptographic system.…In a brute-force attack, the attacker simply guesses…repeatedly at the encryption key until he or she…stumbles upon the correct value for the key…and gains access to the encrypted information.…

Of course, guessing isn't easy, and brute-force attacks…can take a very long time to complete successfully,…if they ever succeed.…Brute-force attacks require very little information to wage.…The attacker simply needs to have an example…of encrypted ciphertext.…For this reason, brute-force attacks are also called…known ciphertext attacks.…Earlier in this course, I shared the example…of a simple shift cipher.…It simply moves each of the letters of the alphabet…