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Cryptography

Also Known As Crypto
Security And Privacy

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversaries. The craft is ancient, but its modern era belongs to computing: Claude Shannon's papers of 1948 and 1949 gave it a mathematical basis, and cryptographic algorithms are now designed around computational hardness assumptions, so that breaking them is a computing problem nobody knows how to solve efficiently. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
Origin Year
1976 1
Cryptography as a practice is ancient, but its treatment as a computational academic field is usually dated to the 1970s: the Data Encryption Standard effort of the early 1970s and the 1976 Diffie-Hellman publication that opened public key cryptography, so the origin year depends on whether the ancient practice or the modern computational field is being dated.
Core Concern
How information is kept confidential and authentic against adversaries, using algorithms whose security rests on problems believed computationally hard. 1
Connections

Associated With

Blockchain, Fields

Blockchain records are secured and linked via cryptographic hashes.

Source Blockchain (Wikipedia)
Claude Shannon, Pioneers

His 1948 information theory paper and especially his 1949 cryptography paper laid the foundations of modern cryptography.

Source Wikipedia: Cryptography
Claude Shannon, Pioneers

Claude Shannon's 1949 paper Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems put cryptography on a rigorous mathematical footing for the first time, founding the field's modern theoretical basis.

Source The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital RevolutionWalter Isaacson
Computer Algebra, Fields
Information Security, Fields
Source Wikipedia: Cryptography
Quantum Computing, Fields
Source Wikipedia: Quantum computing
Quantum Information Science, Fields
Source Quantum Information Science (Wikipedia)

Includes

Adi Shamir, Pioneers
Source Wikipedia: Adi Shamir
Advanced Encryption Standard, Concepts
Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange, Concepts
Digital Signature, Concepts
Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Concepts
MD5, Concepts
Public Key Cryptography, Concepts
RSA Algorithm, Concepts
Secure Hash Algorithm, Concepts
Shafi Goldwasser, Pioneers
Source Wikipedia: Shafi Goldwasser
Symmetric-Key Cryptography, Concepts
The Bombe, Systems
Source Wikipedia: Bombe
Zero-Knowledge Proof, Concepts
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Cryptography
Wikipedia
  • Introduction and Modern cryptography sections
    Cryptography, or cryptology, is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior.
  • Modern cryptography section
    Modern cryptography is heavily based on mathematical theory and computer science practice; cryptographic algorithms are designed around computational hardness assumptions.
  • Early computer-era cryptography
    In the early 1970s IBM personnel designed the Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm that became the first federal government cryptography standard in the United States.
  • Associated With: Information Security, Lead section
    Core concepts related to information security (data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication and non-repudiation) are also central to cryptography.
View the Source
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Walter Isaacson, Simon and Schuster, 2014Associated With: Claude Shannon
Wikipedia: Bombe
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: The Bombe, Overview sectionView the Source
Wikipedia: Quantum computing
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Quantum Computing, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Quantum Computing, Lead section
A large-scale quantum computer could break widely used encryption schemes and aid physicists in performing physical simulations.
View the Source
Blockchain (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Blockchain, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Blockchain, Lead section
A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Adi Shamir
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Adi Shamir, introduction, first sentence
Quote, Includes: Adi Shamir, introduction, first sentence
born July 6, 1952) is an Israeli cryptographer and inventor.
View the Source
Wikipedia: Shafi Goldwasser
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Shafi Goldwasser, contributions section
Quote, Includes: Shafi Goldwasser, contributions section
pioneered the field of provable security, which laid the mathematical foundations that made modern cryptography possible.
View the Source
Quantum Information Science (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Quantum Information Science, Scientific and engineering studies section, paragraph on quantum cryptography devices
Quote, Associated With: Quantum Information Science, Scientific and engineering studies section, paragraph on quantum cryptography devices
Quantum cryptography devices are now available for commercial use.
View the Source
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