Cryptography

Cryptography (from Greek kryptós, "hidden", and gráphein, "to write") is the study of the principles and techniques by which information can be concealed in ciphers and later revealed to legitimate users employing the encryption key (see /Key), but in which it is either impossible or computationally infeasible for an unauthorized person to do so.

Cryptology -- Cryptanalysis

Hash function: MD5 -- SHA-1

Public Key Cryptosystems (Asymmetric Algorithms): RSA -- Diffie-Hellman -- Elliptic curve cryptography

Secret Key Cryptosystems (Symmetric Algorithms): Enigma -- One-time pad -- Data Encryption Standard (DES) -- RC4--Blowfish -- International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA) -- Advanced Encryption Standard

Terminology: /Key -- Cipher -- Code

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Further Reading:

• Schneier, Bruce - Applied Cryptography ISBN 0471117099 (amazon.com, search)
• Schneier, Bruce - Secrets and Lies ISBN 0471253111 (amazon.com, search)
• Bamford, James - The Puzzle Palace : A Report on America's Most Secret Agency ISBN 0140067485 (amazon.com, search)

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Related topics:

Echelon, Enigma, Ultra, Security engineering, Steganography, Cryptographers