What's the difference between Diffie-Hellman and RSA, and how do they apply to cryptography and encryption?

How to Answer
1st Answer Example
2nd Answer Example

Any cryptographic currency transaction will have a level of encryption to protect the sender and receiver of currency or data. This is called the Diffie-Hellman. The other currency encryption method is RSA, which stands for Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman.

A hiring manger is looking for candidates that have a deep understanding of Diffie-Hellman and RSA. For example, someone that can articulate and define both methods, and explain what they mean and how they apply to cryptography and encryption. It's best to share your knowledge of best practices using both methods, and how you gained that knowledge. It would also help to add how you have developed and fine-tuned those skills which have made you an expert in the field.

"In my experience, I have found that Diffie-Hellman is a key-exchange protocol, while RSA is an encryption/signing protocol. Both work in different ways. Diffie-Hellman does not require you to have key material, while RSA does require you to have key material. A project I was working on required me to set up an RSA cryptography key which involved using the Rabin-Miller test algorithm to provide a link between the P and Q numbers. The way I was able to explain this to my team was that if Dan wanted to send Mary an encrypted message, he would have to obtain a public key which is encrypted into a Ciphertext, then Mary receives Dan's message, then decrypts it by using her RSA private key."

"Cryptographically speaking, Diffie-Hellman is the main method of building a shared secret over a public domain. I know that when I am faced with a Diffie-Hellman attack, the method I use is called Man-in-the-middle because neither side is authenticated. Our corporate IT security operation is finicky about what data or messaging is shared with people within the company who are not in a role to share or manage data, which is why we apply Diffie-Hellman in cases like these. One example was when I had to give permissions to one of my colleges to encrypt their data before sending it to another party. I had to make sure they both had encryption and decryption keys so they could read each other's message."

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How to Answer: What's the difference between Diffie-Hellman and RSA, and how do they apply to cryptography and encryption?

Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Tanium job interview.

10. What's the difference between Diffie-Hellman and RSA, and how do they apply to cryptography and encryption?

How to Answer

Any cryptographic currency transaction will have a level of encryption to protect the sender and receiver of currency or data. This is called the Diffie-Hellman. The other currency encryption method is RSA, which stands for Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman.

A hiring manger is looking for candidates that have a deep understanding of Diffie-Hellman and RSA. For example, someone that can articulate and define both methods, and explain what they mean and how they apply to cryptography and encryption. It's best to share your knowledge of best practices using both methods, and how you gained that knowledge. It would also help to add how you have developed and fine-tuned those skills which have made you an expert in the field.

1st Answer Example

"In my experience, I have found that Diffie-Hellman is a key-exchange protocol, while RSA is an encryption/signing protocol. Both work in different ways. Diffie-Hellman does not require you to have key material, while RSA does require you to have key material. A project I was working on required me to set up an RSA cryptography key which involved using the Rabin-Miller test algorithm to provide a link between the P and Q numbers. The way I was able to explain this to my team was that if Dan wanted to send Mary an encrypted message, he would have to obtain a public key which is encrypted into a Ciphertext, then Mary receives Dan's message, then decrypts it by using her RSA private key."

2nd Answer Example

"Cryptographically speaking, Diffie-Hellman is the main method of building a shared secret over a public domain. I know that when I am faced with a Diffie-Hellman attack, the method I use is called Man-in-the-middle because neither side is authenticated. Our corporate IT security operation is finicky about what data or messaging is shared with people within the company who are not in a role to share or manage data, which is why we apply Diffie-Hellman in cases like these. One example was when I had to give permissions to one of my colleges to encrypt their data before sending it to another party. I had to make sure they both had encryption and decryption keys so they could read each other's message."

Next Question