DATA PROTECTION TECHNIQUES: A CRYPTOGRAPHY APPROACH

Abstract

Purpose: Digital world is a complex and a constantly evolving world alongside the modernization. This has been through the improvement of the technology from physical nature information to digitized data that is the information technology. Data is, therefore, becoming a basic element in today's world than they were anticipated some three decades ago, now being shared and stored electronically. This study, therefore, sought to establish the ways in protecting information privacy using cryptography.

Methodology: The study adopted a desktop literature review method (desk study). This involved an in-depth review of studies related to data protection and cryptography. Three sorting stages were implemented on the subject under study that is data protection and cryptography in order to determine the viability of the subject for research. The first stage that comprised the initial identification of all articles that were based on data protection and cryptography from various data bases. A second search involved fully available publications on the subject of data protection and cryptography. the third step involved the selection of fully accessible publications. Reduction of the literature to only fully accessible publications yielded specificity and allowed the researcher to focus on the articles that related to data protection and cryptography which was split into top key words. After an in-depth search into the top key words (data protection and cryptography), the researcher arrived at 12 articles that were suitable for analysis. Analysis was done using Excel where the study presented the findings in form of themes.

Findings: The research findings point towards several methods that can be used in cryptography which were concluded to include symmetric encryption, asymmetric encryption and hashing.

Unique contribution to theory, policy, and practice: Previous studies were reviewed and some of them presented several knowledge gaps. The review of the literature presented knowledge gaps in the contextual, conceptual and methodological fronts. For instance, one of the gap that was presented was the contextual gap (geographical gap). This is because some of the studies were done in different geographical contexts such as the United States, China and Japan. The application of the findings will be challenged by the technological advancements in Kenya since Kenya is still a developing country in the process of up taking new technologies. Other studies in their research applied different methodologies such as the use of the FTK Imager and the use of Hashing. The studies did not entirely focus on the use of cryptography as a method of data security and thus they presented a methodological gap.