Ohio Cyber Range – Seminar Series: Cryptography

Organized by The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Information Technology, and the Department of Political Science at UC

Cryptography: Its Key Role in Secure Communication

Friday December 21, 2018 / 813 Rhodes / 11am – 12pm

Deep Ramanayake

Every day we hear about different types of cyber-attacks, such as accounts being hacked by malicious hackers or personal data being breached and sold in the dark-web. Information security is currently one of the most popular topics in today’s news. Most of our communication happens through the internet—all of us use the internet as a tool for social interaction, e-commerce, and exchanging personal information, including electronic health records. Safeguarding our information has become tremendously important for every user, and improving education about cybersecurity in all fields is vital.

One of the fundamental aspects for secure communication for all of these transactions is that of using cryptography, a technique for encrypting or securing data so that only authorized users can access the data. Although cryptography by itself is not the complete solution, anyone involved in computer technologies needs to understand the key role played by cryptography for secure communication. In this presentation, Deep will cover the basics of cryptography, why it is important in secure communication, the types of cryptographic algorithms (i.e., hash, symmetric, and asymmetric), and how easy it is to decipher simple cryptographic algorithms.

BIO - Deep Ramanayake is an associate professor at Gateway Community and Technical College. He received his B.Sc. from NKU in Mathematics and Computer Science, and his M.Sc. from Morehead State University in Information Systems. He has 20 years of experience in Information Technology related fields. He currently teaches a wide variety of IT courses including Information Security, Ethical Hacking, and Computer Forensics. His research is currently focused on education in cybersecurity, engaging students with real-world hands-on experience, practice, and exposure to working in teams in competition environments. He also trains the local community and works with local industries on cybersecurity awareness training.