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Cryptography is the art or science of writing secret messages. It comes from the Greek words "Kryptos", meaning hidden, and "Graphen", meaning to write. Cryptography is one of the main tools for maintaining the confidentiality of information. Among other things, it is used to secure sensitive messages, online purchases and online identity verification.
Encryption or encoding is the process of turning a message into a code so that it cannot be understood by anyone other than the intended receiver. The process of retrieving the message from the code is called decryption or decoding. Encryption and decryption usually make use of a key that explains how the code can be translated back into a message.
Cryptography is an exciting field for mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and others who enjoy solving complex challenges. People who work in the field are called cryptographers.
Want to see how it works? Turn a message into a code now and send it to your friend! |
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The US Marines adopted the use of the Native American Navajo tribe's language to encode communication during WWII. |
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IBM corporation created a code, Data Encryption Standard (DES), that has not been broken to this day. |
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Julius Caesar created the Caesar shift for the Roman army over 2,000 years ago. It is a simple alphabet substitution, offset by 3 letters, hence, A would be replaced by D, B by E and so on. |
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The Rosetta Stone, found in Egypt in 1799, was a key for the encryption of messages in three different languages - Greek, Egyptian, and Hieroglyphics! |
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To find out more about cryptography, visit these sites:
exploratorium.edu
resonancepub.com
vectorsite.net
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