Intro to Cryptography and Network Security
People mean different things when they talk about cryptography.
Children play with toy ciphers and secret languages. However, these have little
to do with real security and strong encryption. Strong encryption is the kind of
encryption that can be used to protect information of real value against
organized criminals, multinational corporations, and major governments. Strong
encryption used to be only military business; however, in the information
society it has become one of the central tools for maintaining privacy and
confidentiality.
As we move into an information society, the technological means for global
surveillance of millions of individual people are becoming available to major
governments. Cryptography has become one of the main tools for privacy, trust,
access control, electronic payments, corporate security, and countless other
fields.
Cryptography is no longer a military thing that should not be messed with. It is
time to de-mystify cryptography and make full use of the advantages it provides
for the modern society.