A named algorithm whose defined purpose is securing, encrypting, signing or hashing data. Belongs here: Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm, RC4 Algorithm and SHA-256 Algorithm, each a defined cryptographic primitive. Does not belong here: a general numerical technique, such as a primality test, that cryptography depends on but that is defined by its own mathematical result rather than by a security purpose, filed under Numerical Algorithm; and the general concept of public key cryptography, filed under the technique-holding concept type.
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1. Wikipedia: Cryptography
WikipediaCryptography, History section, earliest-use sentenceQuote, Cryptography, History section, earliest-use sentence
The earliest known use of cryptography is some carved ciphertext on stone in Egypt (c. 1900 BCE), but this may have been done for the amusement of literate observers rather than as a way of concealing information.
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