CRYPTOGRAPHY

The word Cryptography is derived from the Greek word kryptos

meaning hidden secret and graphein meaning writing. It is the method of
providing privacy to the intended content using various set of pre-built
algorithm which are to be known as unbreakable by the attackers.
In simple words cryptography is conversion of sensible or legitimate
information into simple nonsense. If anyone tries to steal the information
they would end up with gibberish text.

History
In the midst of world war II it was cited that Adolf Hitler has used
this science of cryptography to win the war, but later failed. The machine
which was used by him was ENIGMA. This machine was built for the
purpose of communicating the war plans in a safe encrypted way. The UK
at that time has tried to decode the information passed by Hitler to his
soldiers but failed to decode the algorithm. One more fascinating part of
this history is that for decoding these messages a known as Alan Turing
has built up a machine which could think and decode the messages
passed by Hitler. War has led to invention. Below we can see how that
machine looks like.

(a) Enigma Machine used in world war

II

Terminology
The following list of words are commonly used in the context of
cryptography.
1. Plaintext: It is the human readable text.
2. Cipher text: It is the gibberish format of the plaintext utter
3.
4.
5.
6.

nonsense.
Cipher: An algorithm used to convert readable text to gibberish.
Key: The passcode used to read cipher text in readable format.
Encipher (or) Encrypt: Process of converting plaintext to cipher text.
Decipher (or) Decrypt: Process of converting cipher text into
plaintext.

Substitution Cipher

(a) Caesar Cipher

This is one of the simplest method of encryption of text, in this the
plaintext is converted into cipher text with the use of Caesar cipher.
Caesar Cipher

In this technique the plaintext is replaced by a letter fixed a number of

positions down the alphabet. Like if message is hi cipher text is fg
here f is 2 down by h.
Plaintext:

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG

Cipher text: QEB NRFZH YOLTK CLU GRJMP LSBO QEB IXWV ALD

Conclusion
Cryptography is the key to all the problems faced by all devices like
mobiles, computers and all electronic devices.
Security is enforced in Wifi, mobile signals and satellite signals.
Many universities are prescribing the course on information security in
their masters degree.
The world now is more digitalized and virtual. There is a larger scope
in field of cryptography. It a good career builder for a computer science
engineer.

References
Image References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher
3. http://cdn.instructables.com/F9U/M8FE/H2BMNJOP/F9UM8FEH2BMNJ
OP.MEDIUM.jpg

Content References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography