Everyone has their secrets. People tend to keep matters hidden from those whom they don’t fully trust. Keeping secrets or securing them is an art.
It gives you protection by keeping your computing resources secured from unauthorized authorities. Security only works if you can protect certain secrets like keys, passwords, and so on.
Cryptography is one of the most popular methods to ensure the security of secrets. It uses small secrets that are more suitable to hide than big secrets.
Here, the small secret is an encryption key, and the large secret is the original message. In this article, we will discuss what exactly is Cryptography, and different types of Cryptography.
Cryptography
Cryptography is a process of securing information by transforming the information into a form that no one else but the intended recipients can understand.
The information looks like gibberish to other people and the original readable message is called plaintext, and the transformed gibberish one is known as ciphertext.
Generally, cryptographic systems need some algorithm for the planned recipient to transform the ciphertext into its original form, and then they might use the encrypted message.
Cryptography and Encryption
Encryption is the method used in cryptography to transform plaintext into ciphertext. Though it is an essential part of cryptography, it does not cover the whole science.
Encryption always uses a key and an algorithm when processing. It is very important to know the key as the decryption might become difficult or impossible without it, even if you know the method used to encrypt the messages.
History of Cryptography
The cryptography was earlier known as Caesar cipher and is first used for the confidential correspondence of Julius Caesar.
The usage of code phrases was popular in the earlier form of cryptography. But for this, you would have to be familiar with the book of code phrases. In Caesar cipher, everyone communicating has to be aware of the key and the algorithm in advance to encrypt and decrypt the message correctly.
The changes in cryptography began in the 1960s. By using computers, cryptography got a new way to show its importance. With the invention of the computer, cryptography got more advanced and became more complex when the computer became more digitized.
Use of Cryptography
Cryptography is used in various sectors for its significant usage. Security pros can use cryptography and get the advantages of:
- Ensuring data integrity
- Keeping data contents confidential
- Authenticating the identity of the communicators
- Demonstrating non-repudiation.
Types of Cryptography
There are various types of cryptographics in use, yet overall, they are broken into three classes:
- Secret-key cryptography
- Public-key cryptography
- Hash functions.
They got their specific roles to play within the landscape of cryptography.
1. Secret Key Cryptography
Secret-key cryptography also known as the symmetric key. It can keep a local hard-drive private.
Secret-key cryptography can be helpful in confidential message transmission across the internet. But to make sure it happens successfully, you will need to go through the later form of cryptography.
2. Public Key Cryptography
Public-key cryptography also known as the asymmetric key. Public key cryptography is the way that makes it work. In this case, both participants have two keys.
One of them is public and used for encrypting messages. Users can send it to anyone they wish to communicate with. The other one is private, and it is not shared with anyone and is necessary to decrypt.
Public key cryptography is more complex in computation. Fortunately, you don’t have to use it to secure each message you send on the web. Public key cryptography establishes authentication and non-repudiation by confirming the sender’s identity.
3. Hash Functions
Both private and public-key cryptography use algorithms that transform plaintext into ciphertext and then ciphertext back into plaintext, but the hash function uses the encryption algorithm one-way.
Users can only encrypt the plaintext into ciphertext and they can not recover it once it is done. Here, the resulting ciphertext refers to a hash. This system might seem pointless.
Yet, it can be useful because no two plaintexts will create a similar hash. It makes this method a great tool to ensure the integrity of data. Hackers cannot decrypt or use your hashed version password elsewhere even if they breach your defenses.
Conclusion:
For securing your secret, the cryptographic algorithm can play an ideal role. Using this method, you can pass any information secretly. It can provide you the security you want to have. Cryptography protects your information and helps to keep your data confidential.
