Index

1.)       Introduction
Understanding “crypto”

2.)       The History

3.)       Basic Techniques

4.)       Crypto-system
Three Components of crypto system
Basic Types of Ciphers
     Block cipher
     Stream cipher

5.)       Two types of crypto-systems
Symmetric algorithms (Secret Key algorithms)
Asymmetric algorithms (Public Key algorithms)
Which is better?
A mixture of both
One-way hash functions

6.)       Algorithms

7.)       Cracking an algorithm

8.)       Applying Cryptography
Identification and Authentication
Certification
Personal Use
Electronic Commerce
Secure Communication
Passwords

9.)       The Unseen Future
Quantum Cryptography
Biometrics

10.) Summary

11.) References

Abstract

“A secret is precious
 and
a lost secret is priceless”

Cryptography is the science of writing secret code, and also of secure communication.

This paper outlines “Cryptography - The Science of Secrecy” from Ancient Egypt to Quantum methods. At first it explains some basic terms related with cryptography.

The paper explains developments in cryptography from non-standard hieroglyphs of Egyptians to the Enigma machine and some basic techniques to have a better understanding of encryption and the three parts of crypto-system.

There are basically two types of Cryptosystem

(a) Secret-key (b) Public-key
Comparison between these cryptosystems. To eliminate their
 limitations a mixture of both cryptosystems is used.

Paper also outlines brief details of some most popular algorithms, how they are
employed and their applications.

Cracking algorithms deals with the attacks on them.

It also examines the applications of Cryptography for use with
Identification and Authentication, communication, etc;

The paper concludes with a look at the future of Encryption which involves
Quantum Cryptography, Biometrics and its types.

“As long as there are secrets,
there will be cryptography”