Cyber Defense eMagazine May 2019

Is Your Encryption Flexible Enough?
Introducing the XOTIC Crypto System
By Richard Blech, CEO, Secure Channels Inc.
Introduction
The science of modern cryptography utilizes mathematics as the basis for transforming information into
an encoded secret that cannot be decoded or translated without the correct key. Encryption techniques
are an essential cornerstone in the field of information security, whereby individuals, corporations, and
governments wish to protect information and secure it from falling into the wrong hands.
In the United States, the National Security Agency (NSA) has established strict standards for encryption.
Today, block ciphers such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), stream ciphers like RC4, and
cryptographic hashing algorithms including SHA-256 are utilized worldwide as the basis for protecting
everything from banking, to medical records, to very ‘private’ messages on social media’s What’s App.
You may be surprised to know that the AES standard was established all the way back in 2001 and set
as the US Government standard in 2002. As recently as 2016, significant progress was made in
efficiently attacking versions of AES; however, few new standards have emerged since. Most of the
world is still working from the same set of security tools that are approaching their 20 th birthday.
So, if powerful standardized encryption methods have been easily available and essentially free to the
public for decades, then why are there still so many hacks and data breaches that seem to be happening
on a regular basis?
There are answers to this question:
Encryption can be extremely difficult to use effectively.
Encryption can be extremely difficult to use effectively. If someone pressured you to hurry up and encrypt
something right now, what would be the first tool that you reach for? If you were charged with protecting
107