Cryptology
Cryptology is the study and practice of techniques for securing communication and information through the use of codes and ciphers. It has gained immense significance in the context of electronic commerce and the increasing prevalence of cyber threats in the modern digital landscape. Historical foundations of cryptology date back to ancient times, with figures like Julius Caesar employing simple ciphers for military communication. Over the centuries, advancements in technology have led to more sophisticated encryption methods, including mechanical devices like Thomas Jefferson's encoding drum and the infamous Enigma machine used during World War II.
The evolution of cryptology took a significant leap with the advent of computers, which transformed how information is encrypted and decrypted. Public-key encryption emerged as a pivotal advancement, allowing secure communication through two keys: one for encryption and another for decryption. This method offers enhanced security, as knowing one key does not help unauthorized individuals to access the encrypted information. Despite ongoing developments, no cryptosystem has yet achieved complete security, leading to continuous challenges from hackers who exploit vulnerabilities in existing systems. As digital communication becomes integral to daily life, cryptology remains crucial for safeguarding privacy and sensitive information.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Cryptology
SIGNIFICANCE: With the rise of electronic commerce and numerous hackers on the Internet in the twenty-first century, cryptology has become essential in people’s everyday affairs.
One effective way to keep communications secret is to transmit them in codes, ciphers, or both.
Julius Caesar is generally recognized as the earliest military leader to utilize ciphers to encrypt and decode messages. His ciphering system became the basis for many of the more advanced ciphers in later centuries. Eventually, mechanical devices were invented to make encryption and decryption faster and easier. Thomas Jefferson described a drumlike device that was used to encode and decode messages. During World War II , the Enigma machine, a brilliant conception of the German military, was used to add complexity to codes. Enigma’s scheme was eventually broken, first by Polish mathematicians suspicious of the intentions of Germany’s Nazi rulers. It was then passed along to the French and British. None of these early pioneers in cryptology could envision the impact computers would have on the necessity of having covert communications, not just to be used in wars and by spies, but in daily life.
The computer industry has revolutionized cryptology. People who send messages over the Internet want to hide information from prying eyes, but at the same time, messages must be deciphered on the receiving ends. Public-key encryption uses not one key, but two. One key is used to encrypt a message, the other to decrypt it. The most important feature is that knowing the encryption key does not help outside parties to figure out how to decrypt the messages. For this type of encrypting to be effective, it must be easy for cryptographers to calculate a pair of keys (private and public) but virtually impossible for other cryptanalysts to recover either key. The encryption and decryption operations should be easy for legitimate users to carry out. Currently no cryptosystem ever devised has satisfied all these conditions, which is why computer hackers remain in the news for breaking into systems deemed secure by their designers.
Bibliography
Barr, Thomas. Invitation to Cryptology. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2002.
Bauer, Craig P. Secret History: The Story of Cryptology. 2nd ed. Chapman & Hall, 2021.
"Encryption." Internet Society, 2019, www.internetsociety.org/impact-report/2019/encryption/. Accessed 25 June 2024.
Garrett, Paul. Making, Breaking Codes: Introduction to Cryptology. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2000.
Smoot, Betsy Rohaly. Parker Hitt: The Father of American Military Cryptology. U P of Kentucky, 2022.
Spillman, Richard J. Classical and Contemporary Cryptology. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2004.