written by Dan Calloway
Published 7:45 pm EST; www.dancalloway.com
Early vs. Modern Cryptography:
Today’s cryptography is vastly more complex than its predecessor. Unlike the original use of cryptography in its classical roots where it was implemented to conceal both diplomatic and military secrets from the enemy, the cryptography of today, even though it still has far-reaching military implications, has expanded its domain, and has been designed to provide a cost-effective means of securing and thus protecting large amounts of electronic data that is stored and communicated across corporate networks worldwide. Cryptography offers the means for protecting this data all the while preserving the privacy of critical personal financial, medical, and ecommerce data that might end up in the hands of those who shouldn’t have access to it.
There have been many advances in the area of modern cryptography that have emerged beginning in the 1970s as the development of strong encryption-based protocols and newly developed cryptographic applications began to appear on the scene. On January, 1977, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) adopted a data encryption standard called the Data Encryption Standard (DES), which was a milestone in launching cryptography research and development into the modern age of computing technology. Moreover, cryptography found its way into the commercial arena when, on December, 1980, the same algorithm, DES, was adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Following this milestone was yet another when a new concept was proposed to develop Public Key Cryptography (PKC), which is still undergoing research development today (Levy, 2001).
When we speak of modern cryptography, we are generally referring to cryptosystems because the cryptography of today involves the study and practice of hiding information through the use of keys, which are associated with Web-based applications, ATMs, Ecommerce, computer passwords, and the like. (more…)
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