Cryptography : Computer And Science Of Breaking Encoded Data Essay

Encryption technique is the translation of data into a secret code that will prevent hackers or identity thieves from being able to break or read the data that is sent across the network.

When a fellow general received the message, he would wrap the paper around his corresponding scytale to decipher the message (Tyson 2014). Since the advent of computers though, encryption has become increasing important and relies almost solely on cryptographic means to secure information. When speaking about encryption today, it refers more to the process rather than the mathematical formulas used to scramble data. The basic idea behind encrypting a computer message is such that it is scrambled with a sequence of random bits, known as a key, and only parties with the corresponding key can transpose it back into a comprehensible format. These keys are created via a cipher, otherwise known as an algorithm. When a user sends a message, known as the plaintext, across a network, the computer applies an algorithm to the information to encode it, resulting in a ciphertext (Encryption Basics 2014). This method can be best summarized visually:

Encryption is the conversion of electronic data into another form, called cipher text, which cannot be easily understood by anyone except authorized parties. The primary purpose of encryption is to protect the confidentiality of digital data stored on computer systems or transmitted via the Internet or other computer networks. Modern encryption algorithms play

Moreover, encryption requires use of a key or cipher, which is used to lock and unlock the hidden data. Such a key is necessary to allow the hidden data to be viewed in an intelligible manner by those who are authorized to view it. However, there is always a risk that the encryption key might fall into the wrong hands, thereby allowing the information to be accessed by unauthorized viewers.

Data, often referred to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm and an encryption key. This process generates ciphertext that can only be viewed in its original form if decrypted with the correct key. Decryption is simply the inverse of encryption, following the same steps but reversing the order in which the keys are applied (Rouse, 2014).

Encryption is a method of encoding a message or information before sending it, so unauthorized users can’t access it without permission and only the person who has authorised access to it can decode it. Encryption is used to keep things secure and keep things confidential within the organisation. For example let’s say you have a chat with a friend on Skype, when you’re sending a message to him, that message will display as random symbols until he receives it, which then decodes it and makes it so that only he can read it. This allows the communication to be secure and private, no one will be able to know what the message says.

Encyption takes data and transforms it into unreadable jargon until a key is used to unlock or decrypt the data back to its original form. Due to its near infallibility, encryption is one the most best ways to secure data (Williams & Sawyer, 2015).

To understand encryption, you must place yourself into the internet of the 90’s. At the time the internet was still new, all the data could be seen and accessed easily.The problem was that anyone could access your information and read it. This was a major issue because at that time, internet privacy was almost impossible.

According to the Newton's Telecom Dictionary, cryptography is, "the process of concealing the contents of a message from all except those who know the key," (207). It is also defined as ". . . the science, or art, of secret writing," (Huffman 2). The word "cryptography" originated

Encryption converts data from a readable form to unintelligible text. Only authorized users are able to convert the data back into a readable format. (Sayles & Trawick,

A science vital in modern, everyday life. A word unknown to many. Key in both the winning of the Revolutionary War and World War II. Used for security, communication, authentication, and encryption. Runs not only the digital world, but cars, medical devices, and drones. What is this unheard science? This hidden word? Cryptology.

With data and the collection of it, comes the added need for security. To begin to understand how we need to secure the data we collect we need to understand a few aspects of the

Before approaching Claude Shannon’s contribution to Cryptography, one must look at his prior work in particular in the field of information theory, a field he theorized in his 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Information. Shannon introduced a lot of the ideas that were mentioned and developed in this revolutionary paper to the scientific community in his 1945 paper entitled A Mathematical Theory of Cryptography.

Encryption is a method of programming data for security so that it appears to be random data. Only the people sending and receiving the information have the key to decrypt the message, which will put it back into its original form making it readable. The only people with the key are the people who are intended to read the message. Not many people know what encryption is. I took a survey of twenty students and asked two questions. The first question I asked was do you know what encryption means and the second question I asked was have you ever heard of anybody using encryption. This is a chart of the information I received:

Encryption is a method of converting plain text to cipher text using some base keys and