Applications of Information Cryptography in Its Various Stages of Evolution, from Antiquity to the Modern Era

Abstract

Communication is a daily activity. Information needs to be move from a sender to a receiver, for a communication to hold. However, there are information or messages that should be kept secret and does not require knowledge of a third party. Such messages are encrypted or coded into a cipher text, so as to make no meaning to a third party who may eventually intercept it. This coding of information is called Encryption, while Decryption is the reverse of encryption. Thus, Cryptography is the process of encryption of plain texts and decryption of cipher texts. Cryptography began in early civilizations of Hebrew, Egypt, and Rome with the Atbash, Hieroglyph and Ceaser’s Ciphers respectively. This period is regarded as the “Antiquityâ€. Cryptography later evolved into Classic Cryptography, in the Middle Ages, where the “Key Model†and “Cryptanalysis†or code-breaking were introduced. Furthermore, Cryptography evolved to “Field Ciphers†and “Tele-Printer Ciphers†during the World War I. Moreover, the World War II saw the evolution of cryptography into various “Cipher Machinesâ€. In modern times, cryptography evolved into sophisticated mathematical equations called “Algorithmsâ€, for encrypting and decrypting messages. At these various evolution stages, cryptography is seen to be applied in civil communications, wars, cryptanalysis and e-commerce.