KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMPUTING

COURSE UNIT: NETWORK MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS AND

SECURITY (SCS 2105)

NAME: EKODE JOSHUA

REG NO: 20/U/ITE/9812/PE

ASYMMETRIC DATA ENCRYPTION MECHANISM AT UGANDA
NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS BOARD (UNEB).
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) is an assessment body with systems of
examination formats and grading. Every system requires a safe data transmission mechanism and
that’s where cryptography comes in.
In this report we look at how data at UNEB can be transmitted safely using asymmetric key
mechanism
1.1 Data encryption and decryption mechanisms.
These are mechanisms that convert the original representation of information known as plain text
into alternative form known as cipher text (encryption) and only authorized parties can decipher
a cipher text back to plain text to access the original information (decryption).
There are two types of data encryption and data decryption mechanisms and those include;
symmetric mechanism and asymmetric mechanism.

1.2 Symmetric mechanism (private).

This is an algorithm for cryptography that uses the same cryptographic keys for both the
encryption of plain text and decryption of cipher text.

1.3 Asymmetric mechanism (public).

This is a cryptographic system that uses pairs of keys. Each pair consists of a public key and a
private key. A public key is used to encrypt a message to be sent so that it can only be decrypted
by the intended recipient’s private key.
2.0 BACKGROUND OF UNEB.

Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) is an assessment body with systems of

examination formats and grading inherited from the University of Cambridge Local
Examinations Syndicate. In 1968 the East African Examinations Council (EAEC) came into
being, and in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate took
over Secondary School Examinations and issued joint certificates. This was a gradual separation
of East African countries from the Syndicate. In 1971, the EAEC became independent. The
EAEC conducted Secondary School Examinations and issued the East African Certificate of
Education (EACE) and the East African Advanced Certificate of Education (EAACE). The
EAEC also took over Business Examinations from the Royal Society of Arts and Technical
Examinations from City and Guilds of London. This arrangement went on up to June 1980 when
the EAC broke up and Uganda started conducting its own Examinations. Consequently, the East
African Certificate of Education (EACE) was renamed the Uganda Certificate of Education
(UCE), while the East African Advanced Certificate of Education (EAACE) was renamed the
Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE).

2.1 Functions of UNEB.

 Conduct primary, secondary, and such other examinations within Uganda as it may
consider desirable in the public interest.
 Publish past examination papers.
 Award certificates to successful candidates in such examinations.
 Invite anybody or bodies outside Uganda, as it may think fit, and to jointly conduct
academic and other examinations.
 Award acceptable certificates to successful candidates jointly with the invited bodies;
 Invite other bodies, as it may think fit, to conduct examinations and award acceptable
certificates or diplomas;
 Advise anybody or bodies so invited under paragraph (f) upon the adaptation of
examinations necessary for the requirements of Uganda and to assist any such body or
bodies to conduct such examinations.
 Make arrangements for the conduct of research and development of examination systems.
3.0 BODY.

3.1 Electronic data transfer system at UNEB

Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) introduced an electronic data transfer system to
enhance the accuracy of capturing candidate’s marks.
The new system was introduced during the marking of the Uganda Advanced Certificate of
Education-UACE examination results in 2021.
Unlike in the past where candidates’ marks were transferred from various marking centers across
the country to UNEB offices in Kyambogo where they would be entered in a data base manually,
under the new system marks are entered into the database from the different marking cites.
UNEB has installed electronic equipment at each UACE marking center which are connected to
the UNEB data center in Kyambogo through a wireless system.

The UNEB Board chairperson, Prof. Mary Akwakol says they used the new system to capture
student’s score twice so as to detect and eliminate any discrepancies.

UNEB used six marking centers during UACE, 11 for Primary Leaving Examinations-PLE and
17 for Uganda Certificate of Education-UCE.
The UNEB General Secretary, Dan Odongo says the new system eliminates risks associated with
manual transfer of marks.
The manual system he says exposes the data to risks like human interference, misplacement and
delayed delivery when the person delivering the marks does not find the right person.

UNEB says the system will be rolled out to cover PLE and UCE this academic year.

With such developments at UNEB, a secure data transfer mechanism has to be used
3.2 How data will be transferred using asymmetric encryption at UNEB

Keys to note.

 Data from the various UNEB marking centers is sent as plain text data.
 That plain text data is then encrypted using the sender’s (marking center) public key and
converted to ciphered data.
 The ciphered data is then delivered to the UNEB offices but it is first decrypted using the
UNEB office private key.

3.3 Why asymmetric encryption is suitable to be used at UNEB

Data security. Due to the sensitivity of data at UNEB asymmetric encryption is needed, this is
because it’s strongly secure and it involves a lot of multiple key players so that it becomes very
hard for hackers and crackers to figure out the keys to decrypt the data.

Confidentiality. The most common application of Asymmetric Encryption is confidentiality.

This is a much needed aspect at UNEB due to the kind of data being transferred. This is achieved
by sending critical information and encrypting it with the receiver’s public key and decrypting it
with its own private key.
Authenticity using Digital Signatures. A sender attaches his private key to the message as a
digital signature and exchanges it with the receiver. The receiver uses the sender’s public key
and verifies whether the private key sent belongs to the sender, hence ascertaining the sender’s
authenticity.

Integrity of Information Exchange. One way the hash of the data to be exchanged is created
and encrypted using the sender’s private key. Encrypted hash and data are exchanged with the
receiver. Using the sender’s public key, the receiver decrypts the hash and recreates the hash.
Any difference between the two hashes indicates the content is altered after signature and
integrity are lost. This much needed at UNEB offices.

Non-repudiation. With the digital signature encryption tool in place, the sender of information
from the marking centers to the UNEB head office cannot disown the content, and a transaction
done online cannot be disowned by its originator.

It is convenient. Asymmetric encryption solves the problem of distributing keys for encryption,
with everyone publishing their public keys, while private keys being kept secret.

It detects tampering. With digital signatures in public key encryption, message recipients can
detect if a message was altered in transit.

Asymmetric encryption provides a platform for securely exchanging information without having
to share private keys. Non-repudiation, Authentication using Digital signatures, and Integrity are
the other unique features offered by this encryption.

This method also overcomes the lacuna of Symmetric encryption (the need to exchange the
secret key used for encryption/decryption) by exchanging the key alone through public
key/private key in an asymmetric way and still exchanging high volume data using symmetric
mode.
4.0 CONCLUSION

When you are to choose the best data encryption mechanism to be used by Uganda national
examination board (UNEB), the best option would be an encryption mechanism that has the
following aspects; data security, confidentiality, authenticity, integrity of information exchange,
non-repudiation and convenient. This is because of the kind of information held by UNEB which
is so vital for all students that take up the examinations and any loss of such data can be very
costly both for the UNEB officials and the students involved. With all this said asymmetric
encryption mechanism stands above symmetric mechanism.
5.0 RECOMMENDATION

The Uganda national examinations board (UNEB) has sensitive and important data and the only
data encryption mechanism required to be used during transit of all sensitive data will be
asymmetric data encryption mechanism.
REFERENCES

Wikipedia 05/07/2022, 11:00 am

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encryption
Uganda national examinations board, 6/07/2022 at 9:00am
https://www.africa2trust.com/Member/?l=1&c=1&sid=14661&CatID=6#:~:text=Historical
%20background%3A,of%20Cambridge%20Local%20Examinations%20Syndicate.
The independent, 06/07/2022, 11:40am
https://www.independent.co.ug/uneb-introduces-electronic-data-transfer-system-to-eliminate-
mistakes/
Educba, 06/07/2022, 11:43am
https://www.educba.com/asymmetric-encryption/
Green garage, 06/07/2022, 12:00pm
https://greengarageblog.org/8-pros-and-cons-of-asymmetric-encryption