Developments in the Study of Cryptography

Since the beginning of civilization, humans have needed a way to communicate in secret. Whether it be a letter to a lover or a set of orders for an army, it would be paramount for these messages to arrive unknown and untouched. However at some point, a person could easily apprehend the message; perhaps a spy or the letter bearer, nevertheless the chance of the message being compromised would be quite high. Thus one would have to change the message to appear as meaningless nonsense to those others than the intended recipient. This idea formed the basis of cryptography, the backbone of digital security.

Cryptography is the study and practice of secure communications between two parties usually in the presence of a malicious entity, known as the adversary. More generally it is known as the creation and interpretation of protocols, which are digital rules of communication between two systems. The applications of cryptography is endless, as wherever there is a sending of information, a secure system to send that information is required. Thus cryptography is used in electronic commerce, ATMs, the Internet, government and military operations, and other digital processes.

Beginning around the time of writing, cryptography and its applications have been involved in major world events and have influenced the outcome of wars, politics, and even nations. Earliest possible evidence of the use of cryptography was thought to be found to be in Ancient Egypt, in which hieroglyphs were found arranged in a meaningless, almost teasingly fashion. Although this was thought to be a mere Egyptian joke to a literate reader, the need for secrecy suggests that the actual advent of cryptography arose from the moment when people started to become litera...

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...e used in cryptography as a means of secure connection. This is because if an adversary were to look at the data being sent, the system would be disturbed as it is quantum and therefore the recipient would know that the connection had been compromised. The quest for a working quantum computer is therefore monumental for the field of cryptography and will be a big priority in the future.

The need for secrecy will always be pursued by humans. Thus cryptography in some form will always be present and of utmost importance to the world. It is important to know the concepts behind cryptography and how it is revolutionizing the way humans can interact with one another. Will quantum cryptography change the way the world looks communication? Will computational hardness still be a problem future? There is no definitive answer, but one thing is certain; everything will change.