As a cybersecurity student and aspiring cybersecurity professional, it is essential to continually enhance my cybersecurity abilities. This is why I chose to enroll in Mosse Cyber Security Institute and take their remote internship course (MRCI).

Encryption is the process of converting plain text or data into a coded form that is unreadable to unauthorized users. It is used to protect sensitive information during transmission or storage. There are two types of encryption. Secret-key encryption - uses the same key for encryption and decryption, and public-key encryption - uses different keys for encryption and decryption.

When a client and a server communicate over the internet, they are subject to MITM attacks, thus the server needs to verify the integrity of the request received. The standard way to verify the integrity of the request is to attach a tag called MAC to the request. MAC stands for Message Authentication Code. It is a cryptographic method used to verify the integrity and authenticity of a message. A MAC is generated by applying a cryptographic algorithm to the message and a secret key.

A pseudo-random number is a number that appears to be random but is generated using algorithms. These algorithms use a starting value called a seed and perform mathematical operations on it to produce a sequence of seemingly random numbers. Pseudo-random number generators (PRNGs) are widely used in computer science and simulations to mimic random behavior. Though efficient, it is important to remember that pseudo-random numbers are predictable because you always get the same value when you use the same seed value and algorithm.

MD5 is a type of one-way hash function. A one-way hash function is a cryptographic function that takes an input and generates a fixed-size output. When a one-way hash function produces the same hash output for different inputs, this is known as a collision. A good one-way hash function must be collision-resistant. The collision-resistance property ensures that it is computationally infeasible to find two inputs that produce the same hash output. If a hash function lacks collision resistance, it becomes vulnerable to collision attacks such as birthday attacks, where an attacker tries to find two inputs that produce the same hash value.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that enables secure communication between two devices over a network by encrypting the data exchanged between these devices. When a device wants to establish a secure connection with another device, it starts a TLS handshake. Once the TLS handshake is completed and the secure connection is established, the devices can safely exchange data without worrying that someone else might be able to read or modify it.