What is cryptography?
Cryptography and encryption in computing
Cryptography means secret writing , defined as a field of cryptology that deals with encryption or encoding techniques aimed at modifying linguistic representations with the ultimate aim of rendering unauthorized recipients understandable. .
The objective pursued by cryptography is the protection of information so that the recipient is the only one capable of understanding the information sent. It is possible that there is a key or coordinate that allows the decoding of this information, for this there are encryption methods or systems that are only known to the receivers.
Cryptography was born in times of war due to the need to send strategic messages that are key and that opposing factions are not able to understand the message (you can delve more about the development of this with the movie Enigma Code starring Alan Turing in WWII). At present, cryptography is commissioned by areas mainly of computing in order to protect the security of data or communications that are mainly shared on the internet.
Web cryptography
In addition to protecting the information that runs through the internet, cryptography preserves the security, communications and operations of users. Such as, passwords of their accounts: known cases of SQL injections allowed to reveal the passwords of the users; video calls where the case in which the ZOOM company did not encrypt its connections is contingent, thus making the privacy of users vulnerable); and bank transactions: the case of the first versions of Mercadopago in Chile, where bank cards, expiration dates and CVV verification codes are exposed to third parties.
Faced with the need for communication encryption, Google implemented SEO guidelines to assess websites that comply with encryption regulations using HTTPS protocols. In addition, in cPanel Lets Encrypt plugins were implemented for the implementation of the SSL protocol for free. Let us remember that only a few years ago, the implementation of these protocols required dedicated IPs and the purchase of the certificate (not minor costs) added to the costs of implementation and adaptability.
All of these practices have promoted the development of fields of computer security, what today seem to be only steps in development, at some point were deliberate implementations by expert engineers in computer security.
Types of cryptography
Depending on the way messages are encrypted, they can be classified mainly in two dimensions: Symmetric cryptography
Symmetric cryptography uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt messages, so that both parties have the key or coordinate to be able to decrypt it Asymmetric cryptography
Two keys are used in this method: public and private. The public is accessible by anyone, while the private only has the owner of the key.
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