Compression Dilemma

Computer Science Level 2

Alice wants to send Bob a large file.

She is also worried about the security of the network. So, she needs to encrypt it.

Should she compress the data and then encrypt? Or should she encrypt the data and then compress? Or does it not matter?

Either will compromise security Encrypt then compress Compress then encrypt Either is fine Neither will compress the data

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Agnishom Chattopadhyay by Agnishom Chattopadhyay , 22, India

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3 solutions

Discussions for this problem are now closed

Encryption makes data look like gibberish.

Compression Algorithm look for patterns in the data. Essentially, they work by representing the data in terms of this patterns. Hence, they cannot work on encrypted data which is apparently patternless.

79 Helpful 1 Interesting 1 Brilliant 3 Confused
Anshul Gupta
Jan 17, 2015

Encryption makes data something different from original and then compressing it will make data loss it sense.

But if we compress data, it doesn't changes fully. And then encrypted data can be decrypted in compressed form .

6 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 3 Confused
Chadwick Jin Shui
Jan 17, 2015

By compressing the data, one reduces recognizable patterns into shorter code that looks like gibberish, something that I imagine makes the encryption process easier. By reversing the process, there is no benefit from compression, because encryption as stated before works on recognizable patterns.

3 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

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