Enhancement on Algorithms and Data Structure

Artifact Description:

Zencrypt was originally a simple tool that was built for the command line interface, has been merged into a full-fledged web application that uses Flask. This upgrade helped to add a web-based UI/UX to the CLI program and finalize features like salted hashing, symmetric encryption, and securely processing files online. The Zencrypt web app is built with strong foundations in the development of algorithms and data structures in order to optimally process user inputs, files, and sessions.

I selected this artifact to showcase my progress in blending advanced cryptographic methods with sophisticated data management techniques:

• Hashing Algorithm: I upgraded the SHA256 hashing algorithm by adding an optional salting function to make password security more optimal and effectively is a good way to showcase my fluency in cryptographic principles.

• Modular Data Processing: I redesigned the way that the system processes file uploads and encryption operations to facilitate smooth and efficient data flow. This is a good technique that merges with MongoDB and the data that is being processed.

• Session Management: I integrated into the web application JWT-based authentication that uses MongoDB to give the program a more effective way to store and manage user sessions.

These enhancements have helped me be able to develop a formal UI/UX that is user friendly without compromising security. I have been able to successfully merge a CLI script into a web app that uses MongoDB for the back end to work with the ground zero of the of all data parsed through the front end/ client side inputs, uses JWT to handle secure sessions, all while having a modular functionality of a cipher that can handle different types of algorithms to encrypt/ decrypt text and files.

Course Outcomes:

This project gave me the chance to use advanced algorithms that align with the best practices used in cyber security and software development. It also helped me to use clean code practices in order to professionally design and deploy data structures that were optimal for authentication and session integrity.

Enhancement Process Reflection:

Working on Zencrypt v5-A is simply a way to use different secure algorithms in a singular web environment. I dealt with challenges like moving encryption operations from the command line to a web interface without compromising security, for example, managing user sessions and keys. Using MongoDB also helped me learn how to effectively build data structures that balance easy access to data with strong security. Implementing JWT authentication helped me learn more about token processes, like how they’re made, validated, and managed. Every change that I made to the web app so far has developed with a balance of ease and security in mind. This project has been able to fit well as a real-world ability to showcase my progression in web development.