Some basic concepts: Cryptography is the method of hiding information. It is a method of secure communication in the presence of third parties.

Plain text, by using some method (cryptographic algorithm) and key is converted (encrypted) into obscure (non-readable) cipher-text and transferred to the second party. The second party decrypts the cipher-text by using the key and the method and gets back the plain-text. The third party if present in between and intercepts the message will not be able to extract information from the cipher-text since it does not knows key. The cryptography using the keys is called Secure key cryptography. These are of two typesAsymmetric key and Symmetric key cryptography. Symmetric key cryptography It is called so because the keys for both the parties are the same. The sender encrypts the message by using some key and the receiver decrypts the message by using the same key. It is used for sending secure information. This concept is simple.

Asymmetric key cryptography (Public Key cryptography) Both parties have different keys. One key is called the Public key whereas the other is called the private key. There names are such because the Public key is known to everyone and the private key is known only by the owner. A message encrypted

by the public key can only be decrypted using the private key and a message encrypted using the private key can only be decrypted using a public key. It is used for attestation and confidentiality. Attestation or digital signature is method of stating or making sure that if A has send a message, it is send only by A i.e. it is not possible that anyone else has send the message in the name of A. This is why signatures are used if a letter is signed by the Director, it is guaranteed that only the Director has send that message, since he has put his signature and his signature cannot be done by any other person. Now since a private key is known only to the person sending the message. He encrypts the message using his private key. This message can be decrypted by anyone who has his public key. So anyone who has public key can read the message. Since the message is decrypted by the persons pubic key, it is sure that this message was only encrypted by his private key. And since the person only knows his private key, it is guaranteed that only he has send the message thus the message is authenticated.

Confidentiality or integrity: This means that the message should be read by the person for whom it is intended. If I want only Bob to read the message then I will lock the message with his public key. The message encrypted by Bobs public key can only be decrypted using his private key, and since only Bob knows his private key, he can only decrypt it and read it. Thus confidentiality is maintained. Although n number of persons know his public key but they cannot decrypt it because the message encrypted using a pubic key is only decrypted using the corresponding private key.

Keys are generated using Random numbers, that is why we need a random number generator.

Cryptographic Hash functions:

A hash function takes a message or data and by using some algorithms generates a code for that data known as a hash or cryptographic hash value or message digest or simply digest such that an accidental
or intentional change to the data will change the hash value. Cryptographic hash values are sometimes called (digital) fingerprints, checksums, or just hash values. This is also called MAC (message authentication code). There applications include verifying the integrity of a message. This works as follows a MAC is calculated for a given message. That MAC value is send using any of the cryptographic message using above and the message is transferred. Signing of the has can be done by using asymmetric key cryptography. When the receiver receives the data and the MAC it generates the MAC using the same algorithm and compares the MAC that he generated with the one that he has received from the other party. If they are same this means the message is intact or the messages integrity is maintained.