Mnemonics for cryptography

shader

First, let me say that I have been a super troller up til now, however, I would like to thank everyone here for your help in helping me obtain my Network+, Linux+ and CCNA certifications. Now I am going for the SSCP certification. I have been studying for about a month now and no matter how I try I cant seem to remember the little things about cryptography like which type of encryption goes with which type of method. I was hoping that maybe one of you knew some kind of memory trick to help with this. I hope the question makes sense.

LarryDaMan

Congrats on all of your success so far. I've got the CISSP in 16 days, so I have been studying similar material. I have a mnemonic aid, but it will probably confuse you more.

Here is what to do:

Check www.cccure.org and thread search "mnemonic" There is a whole thread dedicated to these aids.

Also, make your own mnemonic aid.
Go to www.scrabble.com
Use the the word builder. Put in the first letter of the words you want to remember and it will spit out possible words to use.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

shader

Thanks a ton :P

JDMurray

I'm actually working on the crypto section of the CISSP now. I organize everything into tables and just associate a specific value(s) for each field in the table. For example, for every cipher, you must memorize: if it's a/symmetric, block size, key size, number of rounds, and uses. This maps out to a table that I memorize. When I read "IDEA" I think "symmetric 64-bit block, 128-bit key, 6/8.5 rounds, used in PGP." I always remember these facts in that order.

Where this fails with the CISSP is in conceptualization. On the CISSP exam, you will not get a question that asks, "What is the key size of the IDEA cipher?" (Although, you might get this type of "Security+-ish question on the SSCP.) Instead, you'll get a question that leads you to infer that the correct answer must be a symmetric cipher with at least a 128-bit key size, and IDEA therefore could possibly be a correct answer.