Essay On Cryptography

1026 Words3 Pages

Cryptography affects the individuals lives everyday. Cryptography is the act of writing or solving code. Cryptography has been around for thousands of years however it is a very young science as it hasn’t been studied for long. Cryptography affects the way everyday things are done and carried out. Cryptography provide many thing for the everyday person such as authentication, time stamping, electronic banking and secure network communication. Authentication is a very important application of public key encryption. According to Simpson authentication ensures the message is from a certain person. Ensuring a message is from who it is said to be from is important in making sure information is passed along to the correct people. As well as ensuring …show more content…

As stated by Simpson, “Time stamping is a technique that can certify that a certain electronic document or communication existed or was delivered at a certain time.” The verification provides people with indisputable details regarding when a message was sent or when they clocked into to work. This protects them from their employer cutting their checks by claiming they didn’t show up or were late. It also protects people from online predators as it provides accurate information regarding when a person sent a message. Another way cryptography affects people everyday is by providing online banking. As specified by Simpson online banking is considered, “transactions carried out electronically with a net transfer of funds from one party to another, which may be either debit or credit and can be either anonymous or identified.” Online banking …show more content…

The actions of cryptographer and cryptography groups such as L0pht and WikiLeaks play large rolls in people’s lives. In the cryptography group one member in particular, Mudge, is well known and had provided many important changes in cryptography. According to Zetter, “Mudge and his wife, Sarah, a former NSA mathematician, have developed a first-of-its-kind method for testing and scoring the security of software.” This software provide a scoring system for the security of a particular system. While it does not pinpoint exact vulnerabilities it informs people of whether there are vulnerabilities. This allows companies to upgrade and improve their software. This also leads to more protection for the clients information who is stored in the company's system. WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, is the biggest player in the cryptography word. WikiLeaks has leaked several large documents, including several classified documents, and is considered near impossible to take down. Ludlow stated, “WikiLeaks is not the one-off creation of a solitary genius; it is the product of decades of collaborative work by people engaged in applying computer hacking to political causes, in particular, to the principle that information-hoarding is evil—and, as Stewart Brand said in 1984, ‘Information wants to be free.’“ This statement shows how WikiLeaks while founded by one person could not be

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