What is Cryptography?

I. What is Cryptography

Cryptography is a secrecy technique where the users involved create an actual message but it is hidden in some way. One form of Cryptography is Steganography. This is another secrecy technique, a bit more ancient than cryptography itself. It has been used for thousands of years, but as a primitive form of secret messages. The word itself is a derivative of two Greek words: steganos means “covered” and graphein means to “write”. In ancient time, a man named Pliny the Elder used milk from a thitymallus plant as invisible ink. In Greece and in Persia they would shave a messenger’s head, write a message on his bald scalp, then wait for the hair to grow over it before sending him out to deliver the message. Sometimes they would go as far as to tattoo the message on his head. Obviously the message could not be extremely urgent. The technique of Steganography is not used much for security these days because it has become obscure. It does have strengths and weaknesses, one major weakness being that if the message is found, the secret is out.

Cryptography is another method used to hide the meaning of a message. Cryptography is also derived from the Greek, specifically from the work kryptos, which means “hidden”. Cryptography techniques are different from steganograhic techniques in that this technique is not hiding the actual message, only the meaning of the message. If the message would end up in the wrong hands, the use of cryptography would make sure that the message could not be read, whereas steganography would not, the message would be read. Usually a sender and a receiver would agree as to what kind of scrambling protocol they would use prior to attempting to send any message. They would also agree h...

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